


But Love Is Overrated Anyways

by DumpsterDiving101



Series: But Love Is Overrated Anyways Series [1]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Angry Dan, Angst, Angst and Fluff, Chaptered, Character Death, Cold, Completed, DAN AND PHIL - Freeform, Dark, Death, Drabble, Dystopian, F/F, F/M, Fanfic, Fanfiction, Fire Powers, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Genetic Engineering, Genocide, Hot, I promise its good, Ice Powers, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mutant Powers, Mutants, Mutants au, Other, Phan - Freeform, Phanfiction, Science Fiction, Soulmates, Superpowers, Tents, Violence, but i thought i should tag it anyways, city destruction, cold like frostbite, nothing burns like the cold, phanfic, powers, powers au, renagades, runaways - Freeform, warm like a hearth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2018-11-10 06:56:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 41,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11122137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DumpsterDiving101/pseuds/DumpsterDiving101
Summary: Dan is an angry mutant with ability to control the cold. He shares a tent with a man Phil, who has powers over fire, but refuses to use it for evil. Dan has no such moral qualms.





	1. But Love Is Overrated Anyways

When I was younger, I thought someone who could control fire could easily take over the world. Then I met him, and I decided I was wrong.

Sure, fire is hot and can cause great pain, both of which I've experienced first hand. We had to learn to control our powers, on our own, and as I was the only one who could control the cold in our group, I was stuck with flame boy. Phil Lester- the nicest fire user you will ever meet. He doesn't like burning humans, even after all that they've done to us. He thinks that it's still possible for us to get along. Well, he's wrong.

In the tent, he sleeps and gives off a faint warm glow, always heating the little space up like a sauna. That's why no one can share with him but me- I've never had an issue with getting too cold. My own body radiates icey cold air, sometimes just a little chilly, but sometimes cold enough to kill. I suppose Phil is the only one who could share a tent with me then, too.  Our powers, our God given gifts, compliment each other. I've heard of other fire users, but not in all our years of wandering have I ever heard of one alive. There are only a few of us left, us creatures with inhuman abilities, cteatures that the humans catagorize as Mutants. I could never love a human, as they truly are incapable of love, and that I know to be true. And I could never love another Mutant, for I would turn their skin purple and blue when I cared too much, and my skin would never be warm to the touch, and I could never be passionate about someone without hurting them unintentionally. Truly, I have only one option. And that is Phil. And I hate it.

When we met, and we hugged another mutant for the first time with neither party being injured, he was convinced we were soul mates. Yes, Phil Lester wanted love too, but he took a much, say, warmer approach to it. As soft and gentle as he may be- both weaknesses, but I refuse to say that he is weak, I've seen his powers- but as soft and gentle as he may be, he too could never become passionate over someone without having quite unfortunate heat problems. Anyone who he loved would surely die an untimely, painful death.

All except me. Which means that our fates our somehow intertwined, and if we ever want love, then it has to be with each other. The humans have killed most others of our kind, and Phil and I and the small group of Mutants that we travel with have scoured the world looking for others. But most of the time, we come up empty handed.

Sometimes the humans have memorials, or great museums, all dedicated to the horrible slaughter of mutants. I long ago stopped asking Phil to burn them down; he refuses to. So I make the others leave before sending a cold so vile and detestable through the cities that they don't even have time to get to shelter before they are frozen to the ground they walk on and forced to endure hours of misery before the frostbite completely takes over and they die, slow and painful. It's what they deserve.

The other mutants know what I do. And all of them agree with my actions, all except Phil, though he long since stopped arguing. He's given up, and in some ways that makes me proud, because he needs to see how humans deserve to be treated, but on the other hand I realize I may have broken the only person who could ever love me. But love is overrated anyways.


	2. But Dan Was Never Quite The Same

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Phil have moisture problems.

Whenever Dan woke up in the morning, he would roll over straight into a puddle of water. There was no leak in the tent, it was simply a side effect of the two opposing temperatures in the small tent. Heat, coming from Phil's side, would meet with the icy chill radiating from under Dan's covers, causing dew drops to form on the top of the tent and therefore create a miniature rain cloud. The first morning they woke up together and found the rain drops, Phil was quite enchanted. He said that it meant Spring was coming early that year. Dan told him his head was full of flowers, and that it was just condensation, but oddly enough, Spring did come early that year. 

Predicting the weather was not one of Phil's powers, it was just one of those strange things he was good at. Like remaining unsettlingly happy all the time, or never running out of new songs to sing as they walked. They'd been traveling together for what must have been years, but still Phil would sing. 

This annoyed Dan to no end. Dan was more of the quiet, brooding type, who liked spending his free time scowling and destroying human cities. He'd given up on telling Phil to shut up after the first few weeks. Now, no one questioned it anymore, besides the new mutants they got every once in a while.

One of these, a small boy named Nathan, actually would sing along. The pack of mutants tending to lean more towards Dans personality, quiet and angry and vengeful. But every once in a while, a younger mutant would come along and be more like Phil. 

Nathan was an interesting boy, and it was very sad when he died. He had had control over thunder, and sometimes he could even control lightning, but it was much more difficult. For example, he could easily summon a growl of Thunder so loud it hurt to listen to, but it took him effort to get enough energy to send a little bolt of static lighting someone's way. Dan would know. He was the primary receiver of those shocks. 

And then he'd turn around and find Nathan and Phil laughing quietly at him, Phil with his tongue just barely sticking out of his mouth, and Dan would have to decide whether to smile or to continue being his usual, angry self. It tended to be the latter. But sometimes, he would look away to hide something that almost looked like a grin. 

Humans told stories about him, the Great Ice Prince, the cold dwelling mutants who would destroy entire cities out of pure hatred for the entire human race. He was evil, committing genocide wherever he went, and his demeanor was said to be as cold as his powers. 

"The Ice Prince," Dan had said when he first heard about the title, pretending not to like it. "It's rediculous. I'm not even royalty." 

That lead to some of the younger, newer mutants to come up with all sorts of new nicknames for Dan when they thought he couldn't hear, ranging from 'The Great Ice Prick' to one particularly clever one Phil came up with, 'Frosty the Snowman'. 

Phil wasn't a teenager anymore, but he certaintly acted like it sometimes. He always stuck around the back of the group with the newbies, showing them the ropes and making jokes. The only time his smile ever seemed to falter was when someone asked about his powers. Then Dan would have to step in and show the newbie their place with a thin layer of ice that'd spread across their skin and freeze them if they didn't scrape it off quickly. He wasn't very popular among the youngsters, but he didn't care. They needed to know not to cross the line. 

Phil wasn't ashamed of his powers persay, he simply didn't like telling people about them. Fire wielders were known for their destructive nature, their smoldering temper. They were cruel, and cared nothing for anyone. At least, that's how they used to be. Fire mutants were all but extinct then. 

In the first few days of traveling with the adult mutants, young mutants would learn a lot of new things. They'd learn how to set up their own tent, and check water for contaminates, basically just how to be boy scouts, but they'd also learn more important things. Not to upset Dan. That Phil would care for them, but mostly no one else would. That if they upset Phil, his mystery powers wouldn't be the ones endangering their lives, but Dan's powers definitely would. 

It was always nice finding newbies, though it happened so rarely. Most of the adult mutants had been eradicated from the planet, save for a few in hiding and Dan and Phils group. So most of the newbies were teens- ones who were alive when the world decided they hated mutants, but who's powers didn't develop until later. 

It was always sad when they died. Even Dan might shed a tear in private, when he knew no one could see. It was unfortunate, but it happened. Accidents. Kidnappings. If a human kidnapped you, you'd be better off dead. And one very tragic time, near the beginning, when Dan had lost control of his powers and unintentionally killed one of the others. It was an accident, but Dan was never quite the same.


	3. But The Cold Is Nothing To Be Reckoned With

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orgin

Dan could have been a lot of things. When he was younger, he'd taken an interest in theater, and he'd always been good in school. Who knew? Possibilities were practically endless. 

And then the War On Mutants happened. A secret government operation, P.E.S.T., started a rampant social attack on mutants. Ads everywhere started popping up, news stories about Mutants killing their families, false studies showing how they lacked the ability to love. They were all fake, but people believed them. Society as a whole turned against mutants, and they were forced to hide their powers. 

Then, all of a sudden, a new disease was discovered, with reports claiming that it had wiped out thousands already. The only cure? A vaccine, available for dirt cheap at your nearest pharmacy. It was required to have the vaccine to get a job, to go to school, and everyone was claiming that it was the safest bet. They lied. Inside the syringes was a simple chemical with basic nutrients in it, that had practically no effect on the disease, which in fact, was made up. But it did have an effect on the individuals, and if it found the extra chromosome that signified you were a mutant, it would kill you. 

Soon people realized what it was, but by then, it was too late. Some mutants survived, like Dan, who had been procrastinating on getting the vaccine, until he realized exactly what it was. He did everything he could to spread the information, from posting videos online, to shouting to the mobs. But it was too little, too late. He was accused of being a mutant, which of course, he was, and hunted down. Humans wanted to kill him, though he'd done nothing wrong. And they called him the monster.

Their world became divided. Walls were built. Cities isolated themselves. A revolution took place, people wanting smaller, less powerful governments. And it happened. 

Dan had been in the United States at that time, and was trapped there, all the airplanes grounded, all the airports shut down, potentially permanently. It was there that he met other mutants, other ones that had been outcasted and had they're lives threatened by the humans. He was angry. And they were angry. 

But they didn't do anything, not for a while. They decided on a sole mission to find other mutants to save, to grow in numbers, and to go from there. But as they searched, they found that most of the mutant population had been completely eradicated. Sometimes, they would find younger ones, who's powers hadn't been developed enough to be detected by the vaccine. Unfortunately, they often didn't live very long. The vaccines would kick in unexpectedly, and end them. 

That's what happened the Nathan, and countless others, even back before he'd met Phil. He was angry, so angry at the humans for the pain they'd caused. 

Phil had been too busy with university to get the vaccine before he was tipped off by a government friend about the truth behind it. When Dan met him, and saw his powers- incredible fire abilities, truly amazing- he told Phil to burn a city. The humans deserved it. Everything they had done, all of the mutants, their people, that they had killed- the humans deserved to die. 

But Phil refused. And that's how Dan ended up taking matters into his own hands. And as it turned out, the cold was nothing to be reckoned with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you actually read this and want more chapters, I'll write more. But you need to comment!


	4. But It Was Too Strong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan's origin

Dan had gotten his powers earlier than most.

It wasn't a big event really, just little things he started to notice. How his skin was always cold. How whenever he took a hot shower, he always ran out of hot water faster than anyone else in his family. Sometimes, he's wake up and realize his bedspread was covered with a fine layer of frost. 

He didn't know what to do. His powers developed when he was nearing the end of his year 10 in school (9th grade), and he was already a target. He wasn't bullied that badly, just some names here and there; some twats wanting to make themselves feel better by picking on him, teasing him about his family income, his accent, and their suspections of his sexuality. This was still before the War on Mutants began, and though no one necessarily hated Mutants, they weren't encouraged. People didn't see it as superpowers. They saw it as a distraction, something unfair, and laws were already in place as of then requiring that Mutants didn't use their powers for personal gain. They had to try and blend in.

So that's what Dan did. But it was hard when the air around him was always significantly colder, and whenever he stood from one of the metal desks it was always so cold you could get stuck to it if you weren't careful. And his powers only grew. 

Once the teachers found out what had been going on, the sent a note home to Dan's parents, who were furious. He'd somehow managed to keep it from them for a while, which may have just made it worse. They said that he needed to control his powers and stop showing off; he needed to warm up. 

But he literally couldn't. Dan's powers were not something he had control over. The cold radiated around him, sometimes the power seemed to hum with electricity, waiting to be used, waiting to get out. And the more Dan tried to surpress it, the more his very life force seemed to drain into it, fueling it until his power was more alive than he was. 

And soon, everyone knew. He had to switch schools to a more accepting one, where they gave him his own desk in the corner of the class, where no one had to sit next to him or talk to him, and everyone could try and pretend to ignore the constant lingering chill from that side of the room. To make it even worse, the teacher requested that the temperature be turned way up to try and act in opposition to it, which only made droplets of condensation form on Dan's schoolwork. He turned in smudged, damp assignments he'd worked incredibly hard on, and the teacher would scowl and give him a B without even reading them. B after B after B, because the teacher didn't want to have to deal with him. 

Dan ended up leaving school and finishing year 13 online, in the comfort of his bedroom. And as soon as he was done, he was offered a decent paying job where he could continue working on his computer all day, which he took. 

Eventually he moved out, and though his family didn't cry, he could tell they were upset. But not that he was going. They were upset that they gave birth to a Mutt, and that all of Dan's potential was ruined because or this power, this curse, that he refused to control. 

It was simply too strong. The cold took over everything, statting with the ability to feel warm, and ending with his life. And he would've began truly hating his powers and himself, if that wasn't when the War On Mutants began. Because then he found someone else to hate. _Humans_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember to comment and tell me what you think!


	5. But It Felt Nice

  Sometimes, Dan got tired of the cold. 

  He floated on his back in the smooth flowing river, very aware of his hair curling at the ends, but chosing to ignore it. The sunset had already taken place- not that it was that impressive anymore, after all of the air pollution- and now it was that color that came right before black in the night sky. As in, it was early enough to have no trouble seeing, but late enough to warrant taking a break from their constant mission until morning. 

  With his ears underwater, Dan couldn't hear much. He made sure to keep moving, not only to stay afloat, but also to keep the water circulating enough as to not freeze over. Even so, it was uncomfortably cold. Dan missed hot bathes. 

  He wasn't alone in the river, and Phil was just a few meters downstream, washing himself off. It had been days since they'd found a large enough water source to bathe or swim in, and though they hadn't been forced to ration drinking water, the lack of hygiene made everyone a bit moody. If only they had a mutant traveling with them who could produce water, make it rush out of their hands like a fire hose. Dan had met one mutant like that when he was still in high school. He was one of the mutants killed from the vaccines. 

  A noise forced Dan to open his eyes again, to see Phil next to him, apparently talking. Standing, he tried to force the memories to go away, if only for a half hour. 

  "I'll turn around, you can wash up now," Phil suggested. Dan nodded, walking a few paces away. 

  But the further he went from Phil, the colder the water was. It was no coincidence that they were sent down together. Without Phil, Dan would freeze the water, and without Dan, Phil would boil it. And while neither was particularly harmed by the extreme temperatures, it was still best to try and maintain homeostasis whenever they could. 

  After quickly checking that Phil wasn't looking, Dan quickly washed up, cursing under his breath when the freezing water hit his skin. He never seemed to have any sort of control for the powers- he could increase them, enough to freeze over a whole city, but he could never seem to turn them down enough to be comfortable. It was less of an ability and more of a parasite; something difficult that he was forced to live with. 

  When he waded back over to where Phil was sitting in the water, he found that the other boy was having similar problems. The water circulated around him, bubbling and popping, but as soon as Dan came close enough it was cooled down enough to stop boiling. "Are you trying to make Phil soup?"

  "I wish," Phil grumbled, eying Dan slightly as he sat down next to him. "Can I ask you something?"

  _Sure. We're basically stuck with each other anyways,_ Dan thought to himself, but didn't say aloud. "If you want to."

  "Sometimes I really hate my power," Phil said, then bit his tongue like he'd said something horrible. "I mean, it can be hard! And I know people out their have it harder, but I don't like being warm and sweaty all the time. Is that horrible?"

  Once, Phil had gotten so angry he burnt a tree to the ground without realizing it. He could start campfires, and take warm bathes, and anyways, wasn't being warm better than being cold? 

  Dan thought of this as he tried to compile a response. "No."

  _Amazing job,_ he thought, annoyed at himself. "It's not bad," he corrected. "It's hard. I wish I didn't have the ice thing. I want to be warm for once." 

  Then Dan did something, something subconscious and he didn't realize it until he was too late, and he had moved closer to Phil, so close they almost rubbed shoulders, but not quite, and what if Phil was angry and pushed him away and then the only person who liked him in this entire world would hate him and oh God he screwed up-

  Phil sighed, leaning against Dan naturally. 

  _Okay,_ Dan thought, trying to regain control of his thoughts. _This is nice. Warmer._

  It was warmer, considerably so. Phil's head was rested against Dan's shoulder, and the spot that their skin made contact burned. But it felt nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	6. But Maybe They Were Better Not Knowing

  Dan met Phil for the first time in the middle of a forest fire.

  Which apparently wasn't 'completely' Phil's fault, but that's not important. What was important was that Dan and the other six or so mutants at that time were stuck in the middle of what was practically a bonfire, and they were not fond on dying. What was also important was that even with all seven of the powers, none of them had any ability that could save them. 

  Even Dan was powerless against the walls of flames, and though his entire body radiated cold, he couldn't stop or even subdue the fire. If it was a small flame, he could've. But small as in campfire size- not literal-human-bonfire size. He could create snow, but it melted too quickly to do anything but rattle him more. Not to mention even Dan's powers had limits- with a frazzled mind and flames practically biting at his heels, he couldn't have produced much more than a few ice cubes (though with the utter lack of water in the air, even the ice cubes would have been hard to make, and even then they'd be gray with smoke and completely unexceptable for any decent ribena). 

  The point is, they were running through the woods, trying to avoid being cooked to death, when a boy with jet black hair stumbled out of the woods, coughing up blood.

  Immediately all the alarms in Dan's head went off at once, and while the others raises their hands, ready to fight, Dan rushed to the other mutant's aid. 

  With the new, injured mutant in tow- one of the others had to support him, as Dan might just give him frostbite- they made it to the edge of the forrest. Only a few more meters to safety. 

  Then the new mutant tripped and ended up stumbling and falling straight into a growing wall of fire. The destruction around them was so loud that it muffled their voices crying out in warning, and then in horror. But the flames were closing in, and they had no choice but to keep going. 

  Finally out of the forrest, Dan took one glance back, and immediately caused it to start snowing. Because walking out of the flames, alive, was the new mutant. 

  They'd grabbed the mutant and rushed him a safe enough distance away from the flames, where they could perform emergency medical work on him. At this point, the mutant was sweating like crazy, and despite being out of the fire, he kept on coughing up blood. 

  "Do you know what this is?"

  "I think it's a reaction to the burns!"

  One of the other mutants put their hand on Phil's forehead, and immediately yelped, pulling it back. His skin had burned her. 

  "His fever is too high, I don't know how he's even still alive-" 

  "Wait," Dan interuptted, pushing one of them aside. "What's that?"

  He wasn't looking at the dying mutants face, or the blood, or his feaverish skin. He was looking at his shirt. Red. But one part was a different shade-

  Dan yanked the fabric up to reveal what could only be a stab wound. As he assessed it, the others made some other important realizations. 

  Like the fact that the mutants skin wasn't burnt. 

  And that the girl who felt his forehead had what must have been at least a third degree burn on her hand. 

  Or that the mutant was unconscious. 

\----   
  Dan was the only one able to treat the boy's wound. No one else could touch him without being severely burnt, and most of them were already anyways. The fire raged on in the forest, but the area in between it and them was already burnt to a crisp, so it wasn't a threat. 

  Dan, not exactly an expert at medicine, had to do his best to patch the mutant up. The boy was still sweating an unnatural amount, and whenever their skin touched, it steamed, the two opposing temperatures too strong. 

  Phil woke up about a day later, in Dan's tent. It was there that they talked for the first time, and it was there that Dan confirmed his theory: that Phil had fire powers. 

After that day, they never brought up the incident. Phil's stab wound healed, leaving only a small scar on his side that Dan seldom saw, and never dared ask about. None of the mutants traveling with them at that time asked the question that all of them were wondering. 

  Was Phil responsible for the fire that day?

  But maybe they were better off not knowing.


	7. But Not Because Phil Told Him To

The city was a strange mixture of hippie and goth; all happy-go-lucky-pro-lifers wearing capes and reeking of missillanious drugs, who'd get in fights on the streets and proudly show off their new black eyes. Okay, so maybe not goth- but Dan didn't know how else to describe them. 

The city itself was huge, and their entire team of mutants- currently nine of them- were wandering about it's streets, looking for new mutants. But it soon became clear that they weren't going to find any walking about freely. There were memorials on just about every block commemorating the cities accomplishments in the War On Mutants. 

Still, they looked. Not all mutants were like Dan and Phil, where their powers radiated off of them. Some were capable of keeping their powers hidden. The leader of their mutant group for example, whom had control over light, could keep his powers relatively hidden, though sometimes when he was in a building the lights would flicker or go off altogether, and he'd be stuck pretending he had no idea what happened. 

And anyways, they'd found plenty of mutants hiding in plain sight before. Especially the younger ones who had spent their entire lives hiding their powers could easily integrate themselves into the ranks of humans, never to be found out. 

But Dan suspected they wouldn't find any like that in this city. 

Someone stepped on his cape, and he tried not to jump. He was too on edge, and despite his face being hidden by the hood of said cape, he worried someone would recognize him. 'The Ice Prince' was becoming more and more well known, and Dan doubted anyone in this city would hesitate taking him down if they so much as suspected him. 

Dan stopped in front of a large statue of a man, and tried to read the inscription below it, but either he was dumb, or it wasn't written in English. 

Large footsteps echoed down the street- the kind made by heavy boots, which 4 out of 5 times meant one thing; soldiers. 

_Soldiers who had probably heard of The Ice Prince._

Dan turned and tried to act casual as he chose a random street and walked down it. He felt a snowflake on his nose, and made himself do deep breathing. It was times like this when he _hated_ his powers. What was the point in having crazy ice powers if every time you got nervous it snowed? 

The air temperature warmed up a bit, back to what it was earlier. No more snow. 

He turned down another street and became eye to eye with a poster requesting any and all mutant sightings be reported immediately. 'For the safety of our peaceful society.'

Dan couldn't wait to destroy this city. 

\----

A few hours and no new mutants later, and the others were trekking down a hill to pack up their camp, and keep walking. The only one remaining was Dan. 

He waited until their footsteps were gone. Then, closing his eyes, Dan conjured up every memory of humans being unfair that he could; his awful childhood as an outcast, the vaccine that caused the mass genocide of so many mutants. Nathan, being murdered for his powers. And now, less than a dozen mutants wandering about the wilderness looking for others, and having little luck. It was unfair. And it made Dan made. 

He opened his eyes, stepping forwards and reaching his hands out to touch the wall. As soon as he made contact, sheets of ice shot over the stone, growing and strengthening, completely encapturing the stone in smooth, solid, _ice_. 

Dan began to tremble with the force. He braced his feet against the ground as frost shot from his fingertips at an alarming rate, his head filling with images of other mutants, of his group, of _Phil_ , and how this city was a direct danger to them. 

It was snowing, Dan vaguely noticed, not just over him but over the entire city. He heard people cry out from inside the walls, not in pain yet, but in worry, in panic, in fear. Fear of the snow. Fear of the contagious ice covering the walls and leaching onto the floor, leaching onto their houses, leaching onto whatever it could touch. 

"Dan!" 

In that moment of surprise, Dan lost his concentration and the power shot him backwards, his back hitting the trunk of a tree with such force that it was as if his lungs were being given the Heimlich, and Dan was left spluttering for a breath. 

"Dan!" Phil called out again, rushing towards him. Dan sat slumped against the tree, gasping for breath. Surrounding him was a patch of ice unnaturally blue and pigmented, shining a sicken shade of gold in the sun. 

Phil ignored the ice and ran to Dan, crouching next to him. "Are you okay?"

Dan noticed with a hazy awareness that the city was still intact. He was breathing, but he felt like his throat was closing up, as if someone was choking him. And, at his feet, the ice melted, Phil's heat too strong. 

And for whatever reason, that made Dan mad. 

"How dare you?" he accused, trying to pull himself to his feet shakily. "Phil, you could've killed me!" 

Phil helped him up, their hands hissing when they made contact. He scowled. "You were over exerting yourself. If you died, it wouldn't be because of me." .

Dan hissed louder than their skin had, shoving him away. "I had it under control." .

"Look around!" Phil stepped forwards, and despite acting like such a peaceful guy normally, he looked like he was ready to fight. Dan didn't back up, instead squaring his shoulders and holding his hands by his side, mini cyclones of ice swirling around in his palms. Phil kicked some of the snow that was piling up on the ground, immediately melting it to a puddle. "It's snowing everywhere, and the wall is covered in ice, and your-" .

He stopped, staring at Dan with realization. At his stance, ready to fight, and his hands, swirling with power..

"Go back to the camp," Dan ordered, growling. "And _don't_ interrupt me again." .

Dan was ready for a fight. All around him, the air was at least 20 degrees miserable. If Phil was anyone else, he'd be miserable. But he wasn't. He was Phil, and the heat radiated off of his body just like the cold radiated off of Dan. Wherever he stepped, the thin layer of snow on the ground melted and- bubbled? .

"I'm not leaving unless your coming with me," Phil decided, and giving one last nervous look at Dan before stepping forwards and raising his hands. The aura of heat radiating off of him became stronger, and a blast of hot air hot enough to melt plastic billowed from his palms. .

But he wasn't aiming at Dan. Instead, he directed the heat the the ice covering the wall. .

"Stop it!" Dan called out, and the cold reacted before he could. The cold hit Phil's wall of heat and sent him stumbling backwards, tripping over his feet and falling to the ground. "Just go away, let me do my job!".

"I don't want to freeze the city," Phil admitted, angry. "It was a nice place. They didn't do anything to us! Dan, you can't just keep taking out your anger on defenseless humans!" .

"Defenseless?" Dan shouted, the word pounding in his ears. "Were they so defensless when the killed thousands, maybe millions, of mutants? Of _our_ kind Phil, _millions_.".

"The people in this city didn't do that Dan," Phil corrected, voice stealy as he pushed himself to his feet. "I'm leaving," he decided, "and if you still destroy this city after all I've said, then your pathetic. And you can sleep outside the tent tonight." .

Dan's head was spinning as Phil walked away. What the- he could sleep outside the tent? What were they, married? And who was Phil to say any of that to Dan?.

"Oh yeah?" He called back, though by then Phil was out of sight. "Well I'll just get my own tent!" .

He turned back to the frozen stone walls of the city, back to his task. But his powers seemed to have temporarily shut down on him, his emotions too muddled and confused for any real power. All he could manage was a little puff of snow, which definitely was not enough to freeze over a whole city. .

So Dan ended up sparing the city. But not because Phil told him to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I write books on ao3 and Wattpad, both under the same username! Feel free to check out some of my other stories, or just comment your thoughts on how this one is going!


	8. But He Couldn't

Dan wasn't looking forward to seeing Phil. Seeing his smug expression when he realized Dan had spared the city, his stupid little smirk. How dare he treat him like this? _Sleep outside of the tent my ass._

But when Dan got back to camp, he found younger mutants chasing each other around, older ones sitting by the campfire, and others just milling around, performing their duties to keep the camp running. But no Phil. 

As one the younger mutants ran by, Dan grabbed onto their arm, pulling them into him. "Where's Phil?" 

The mutant- a boy, still a young teenager- widened his eyes in terror. "I don't know! Please don't hurt me!"

"God," Dan muttered, pushing him away. "Calm down, I'm just looking for Phil." 

The boy nodded, but didn't look much less scared. "Are you, um... your face-" 

"What about it?" Dan snapped. 

"Nothing!" The kid turned and ran.

Dan shook his head. He needed to teach these mutants some respect- at least let them know that he wouldn't hurt him. He _could_ \- but he wouldn't. 

He pulled another kid aside as she ran past him, this time leaning down to be her height, and even trying for a smile. "Hey! Have you seen Phil?" 

She spun around, tearing out of his grip and ran for the campfire, screaming "Pervert alert! Pervert alert!" 

Dan stood, glaring back at the laughs directed at him from the older mutants around the campfire. "Don't worry, Little Angie. I don't think you're exactly Dan's type," one of the older mutants, PJ, said with a wink.

Dan scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Making sure Angie wasn't looking, PJ sent a quick obscene gesture Dan's way, which only made him scowl further. 

"Phil. Where'd he go?" 

"Last I checked, he stalked into the woods. Why? Trouble in paradise?" 

"Screw you, PJ." 

Dan turned and strode towards the woods, ignoring the snide comment that followed. "You wish!" 

It wasn't hard to find Phil from there. Dan just followed the smell of smoke. 

"Thought you didn't like using your powers," Dan commented dryly, sitting on the log next to Phil. In front of them was a small sapling, only a meter high, with a dozen little fires burning along its branches. 

Phil watched the sapling painfully, and for the first time, Dan realized just his deep his eyebags were. "You know as well as I do that it's not safe to repress them." 

"So you're barbecuing a tree." 

"Have any better ideas?" 

Dan didn't respond for a moment. "I guess one tree is better than a whole forest."

"Speaking of mass destruction, what's the city doing?"

"Thawing." 

Phil grunted. "I guess my opinion isn't worth completely nothing to you." 

"Not completely. Mostly, yes, but not completely." 

That caused Phil to smile slightly. It felt weird- usually, Phil was the one to do the comforting, not be comforted. 

Phil looked up, away from the tree. Their eyes locked, and Dan wasn't sure if he'd be able to look away. 

"You're sick," Phil realized. 

Dan blinked. "What?"

"Dan, you're... pale. Like, really pale." 

Dan looked at his hand. Usually, he was decently pale, but his skin had turned translucent white. At first, it didn't look too unusual- until Phil reached out and grabbed his hand, and Dan realized that he was even paler than _Phil_. 

"Oh shit." 

Phil looked up from examining Dan's hand, his expression suddenly serious. "Dan, what exactly happened after I left?" 

Dan’s eyes were still focused on his paling skin. He could feel the ground beneath him sway. "I.... I tried to keep freezing the city. Could barely form a snowball." 

Phil stood, pulling Dan up with him. "Come on, we have to get back to camp."

His hand was warm- really warm. Dan had spent a lifetime of cold, but he found himself actually enjoying the heat. "No, 'm fine," he mumbled, words slurred. "Phil... no, don't leave. Phil... stop. You're so.... warm.... Phil..." _Hold me_. That's what he was trying to say. But Phil just looked at him with worry.

"Come on Dan. You're sick, we have to go." 

"'M fine!" Dan grumbled, but even as he said it he could feel the world sway beneath him. If it weren't for Phil's arms around him he would've fallen. Since when was Phil holding him?

Phil tried to pull him towards the camp, but the world swayed one more, and this time Phil couldn't catch him. Dan stumbled and tripped over the still burning tree, grunting as he hit the ground. 

"Dan! The fire!"

Dan had been drunk a few times before. This felt like that- but hurt more, and Dan wasn't giggly like he usually was after a pint or two. He rolled his eyes at Phil's worry. "Yeah, whatever. Fire can't touch me."

"Dan, put it out! It's burning your clothes!" 

Right as he said it, Dan could feel the fire sting against his skin. It wasn't warm though- instead, it just felt, really, really cold. "Make it stop," he whined. 

Phil twitched, his whole body unsure what to do. "I can't put it out Dan! That's your thing!" 

"Well obviously my powers aren't working to their best ability right now," Dan complained, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt the flames grew, excited by his easy-burning clothing. 

Phil bit his lip. Finally, he lurched forwards, cupping his hands over the fire lapping up Dan's legs. "It's not working!"

"Well, suppress the oxygen! Fire can't burn without oxygen!" .Dan sighed as the painful tingling started going away. "You're a sucky fire user."

"I barely ever use it! I can never put it out when it starts!" 

The fire was gone, and Dan propped himself up. "I feel sick."

Phil sighed in relief, no longer in fear of burning his friend. "You're pale as a sheet." 

"Fuck you." Phil helped him up, supporting his waist. "You're so... freaking warm."

"Fire user," Phil reminded him as they started limping towards camp. "Does it hurt?"

"Tingles." 

Phil sighed in relief. "Temperature based powers. Extreme heat and extreme cold are similar." 

"Hey Dan!" PJ called, jogging towards them. "I see you found what you were looking- are you okay?"

"He's sick!" Phil called back.

\----

They brought Dan back to his and Phil's tent, where he laid down and almost immediately fell asleep. 

When he woke up, however, his entire body was shaking horribly. "Phil!" 

Only a few seconds later, the familiar face popped his head in. "You're awake!"

"What... what is this? Am I having a seizure?"

Phil observed him. "No. I think... you're shivering." 

Dan groaned. "Make it stop!"

Phil bit his lip. "I can... warm you up, if you want." 

Dan didn't reply, just scooted over in the sleeping bag. A few seconds later, Phil climbed in behind him, wrapping his arms around him. 

Dan closed his eyes, moaning. 

"Um, Dan?"

"Oh God, that feels good. Is that... is that warmth?" 

Phil paused. "I guess so?"

"I get why everyone's so obsessed with it." 

Phil smiled, pulling him a little closer. "The others think you're sick because you were using your powers when they were disrupted. You said you couldn't make more than a snowball?" 

"Yeah." Dan was only half listening. He was more focused on the arms around him, the boy spooning him. 

"They think you can't freeze anything on the outside, so you're insides are absorbing all the cold." Phil waited a second. "Can you try using your powers?"

"Can I try not using my powers for once?" Dan smuggled back into Phil, his entire body relaxed. "This is the most normal I've ever felt." 

A pause. "The most normal?"

"I feel like... I feel like a human. It feels nice. Warm." 

"It's worse than we thought. I should go tell the others-" 

"No!" Dan grabbed Phil's arms, holding them like a seatbelt around his torso. "No. Stay here."

\---

"Phil, do you want any chili?" Angie looked at him expectantly, smiling sweetly. 

"Sure. Dan?"

Dan scowled, trying to hide his face under the shared blanket. 

"That's a yes," Phil decided. "Thank you!" 

Angie scurried off, and Phil sent Dan a lopsided smile. "Maybe if you were nice and actually talked to the others, they wouldn’t be so afraid of you." 

"Well maybe I want them to be afraid of me," Dan hissed. 

Angie came back over, running so fast that the chili splashed around in the bowls. "Here you go!" She grinned widely, handing them both the bowls. A little bit sloshed over onto Dan’s hand, and he cussed. "Sorry!" Angie said, her smile disappearing immediately. 

"Don't worry about him," Phil reassured. "Thank you for the chili though, that was very nice!" 

The little girls smile reappeared, and she scampered away. 

Dan continued to scowl. Phil gave him a disapproving look. "You can’t cuss up around the kids." 

"Please. They’re not even kids anymore, I’m sure they can-"

"They’re being nice!" Phil lowered his voice, trying to be discreet. "I think you need to learn to be a little bit... warmer." 

"Oh, eff off." Dan stood, letting the shared blanket fall on the log. He marched away, ignoring Phil calling him to come back.

It was a cold day, something that never bothered Dan until now. A light layer of frost covered the ground, and Dan shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets. The hoodie was one of the other mutant's- neither he nor Phil had any need for such an object. But even with it, he was miserably cold. 

On the outskirts of the camp, a few of the younger mutants chattered as they built something with sticks and some sort of sticky yellow stuff. As Dan approached, all of them ran away besides one. 

Angie crouched in the snow, looking up at Dan with a mixture of adamance and weariness. 

Dan crouched next to her, picking up one of the sticks. "Think I could freeze this?" 

She shook her head. 

A bit of annoyance crept into Dan’s tone. "Why not?"

"It’s a stick." She looked at him like she was sizing him up, trying to decide whether to keep talking or run away. "No water. You can't just freeze a stick." 

Dan grimaced. "Fine. Just watch." 

He was surprised the stick hadn’t already been covered in frost. His fingers tingled, they way they always did when his powers had been subdued for too long. Dan gripped the stick, closed his eyes for a moment- unnecessary, but it added dramatic effect- and allowed thoughts of the cold to consume him. 

A few moments later, he opened them. Staring back at him was the girl, with her tangled lightish brown hair, and a stick with a few small icicles dripping off it.

Angie looked at him, unimpressed. "I was right." 

A list of insults swirled around in Dan's mind, but he could hardly speak, in awe of his complete lack of ability. 

"It’s okay," the girl comforted, seeing his disappointment. "You’re sick. Phil says you need to warm up and sleep for a while until your powers return." She glanced back at where he’d been sitting. Dan didn’t have to look to know that Phil was watching them with worry. 

Dan shook his head, trying for a smile. "How about you show me your powers. I’m sure I’ve seen them before, but I can’t remember them right now." Not a lie- there was no way Dan hadn’t seen any other mutants powers before, and Angie had been at the camp for at least a year. But he had never necessarily paid much attention to the other mutants before now. 

Angie smiled, and told him she’d show him. Picking up a few of the sticks, she pointed out the sticky yellow stuff holding them together. "Tree sap," she explained. 

Dan widened his eyes. "You’re a plant user?" 

She giggled. "No, Troy got it. He’s good with plants. Not... full plants, but parts. Like... acorns, and sap and stuff." She shook her head. "That’s not the point though. Watch." 

Dan wanted to ask what he was watching, when the sap on the branches began to change form, solidifying, the ends sharpening into crystalline edges. 

"Crystallization," she explained. "I can turn most liquids into crystals. They’re not very big, but-"

"It’s amazing," Dan interrupted, completely in awe. He picked up the branch, touching the edges gently. They weren’t razor sharp, but he was sure they could do plenty of damage. "Just liquids?" 

She hesitated. "Some solids too. Have you ever seen geodes, those rocks with crystals in them? Like that." 

Dan glanced back. Sure enough, Phil was watching them. Dan sent him a friendly smile, like _we're just chatting, no need to worry!_ Phil immediately brightened, smiling back. 

Dan turned back to Angie, dropping his smile and replacing it with one 9f intense interest. "Think you could do that to blood?" 

She went immediately pale, her mouth dropping open in horror. "Wh-what?"

"In someone's bloodstream," he explained quickly, touching the crystals with dangerous fascination. "Not all of their blood, not unless you felt like it. But just a little, enough to form a clot..." 

"Okay Dan, I think it’s time for you to leave Angie alone." Phil’s voice was low and soothing, like he was speaking to a wild animal. His arms looked under Dan's armpits, pulling him up as Dan struggled. 

"Have you tried? Angie, you could do so much! You could-" Dan was cut off when Phil covered his mouth with his hand. 

"I’m so sorry Angie. He didn’t realize, he’s not feeling well."

Dan fought against him, trying to push Phil off of him. "Stop it! Get off, I’m fine!" He yelled in annoyance, words still muffled by Phil's hand. Finally, he tore himself away, but was immediately grabbed by someone else. 

"Calm down, Dan," PJ advised, his voice steely. 

"I’m- I’m fine!" Dan struggled as more arms wrapped around him, keeping him contained. "I didn’t do anything! I didn’t-" Someone tried to grab his hands, and Dan could feel the burst of energy traveling through his body, zapping the person with white-hot cold. 

"Ow!" 

"What happened?" 

"I’m fine, he just... ow, that hurts." 

Phil’s voice. "Here. Let me help." 

Dan found himself falling limply against the arms holding him, exhausted. He hadn’t meant to do that. All of his energy was sent into the other mutant- a stab of cold dangerously intense. 

But Dan didn’t get the chance to check the damage. Finally, he stopped fighting, allowing the others to pull him away from the scene. 

"Can you walk?" 

"I can... I can walk. 'M fine." 

"Come on then." 

They lead his dazed form to a structure- portable, but it wasn’t his tent. "What, What is-" 

"You’re going to hang in here a while," a voice explained. "Until you, um, cool down." 

"I got them." 

"Good. Dan, can you swallow these?" Pills, Dan thought, though he didn't get a chance to say yes or no before they were in his mouth. He swallowed, still too disoriented by what happened. 

"We were just talking," he muttered. "Just... talking."

"Okay Dan, just calm down in here a while. We'll send someone in in a while, okay? Probably... yeah, it’ll have to be Phil." 

"Phil?" Dan mumbled meekly. 

"Yeah, Phil. Until then, just... warm up, okay?" 

"M'kay," Dan muttered. "M'kay." 

"Okay Dan." 

"I didn’t mean to!" Dan added quickly. He was laying in the tent, he realized- in the structure like a tent, but different. "Just... just talking." 

"You need to be more careful next time. But I’m sure Phil will explain that to you." 

The structure was closed, and Dan heard a lock. He dragged himself over to the entrance, trying to open it, but there was neither a latch nor a zip. Nothing. He was trapped. 

"Didn't mean to." 

So he lay, unsleeping, trying to process anything through the haze of disorientation and unnatural warmth. But he couldn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT-  
> The next two chapters of this story will be initially released on tumblr, so if you want to read them when they come out (between November 1-10, 2017), go to my tumblr blog [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Otherwise, these chapters will be posted on Ao3 by November 25.
> 
> Thank you for your support, and please let me know if you like the story!


	9. But He Knew He'd Have To Try

The structure was opened, and Phil climbed inside. 

Dan lay on the floor of the place, the blankets swaddled around him like snakes, constricting, compressing. Dan couldn’t get them off. He hadn’t tried yet, but he was sure he wouldn’t be able to.   
"Hey Dan. You doing okay?“ 

Dan shrugged. "Warm.” 

Phil felt his forehead with the back of his hand, wincing. “Crap Dan, that’s- jeez, how many pills did they give you? Come on, let’s sit you up.” 

He helped Dan up, unwrapping the blankets from around him. Dan sighed in relief as the weight was lifted, and some of the heat was taken away. “What was in the pills?” He felt a little less hazy, and the world wasn’t as blurred. 

"Temperature increasers. They were supposed to help you feel better, melt some of the freezer burn in your intestines.“

Dan scowled, which meant he was pretty much back to normal. "I’m supposed to be cold. I’ll be broiled before I’ll ever get to chance to heal.” He ran his fingers through his hair, detangling some of the curls. “What happened? I was just talking to Angie-” 

"You were talking to Angie about using her powers to kill people.“

"To kill humans,” Dan corrected. “It’d be so easy, too, did you see that stick? She wouldn’t even have to try, just create a little crystal in their blood and boom! Heart attack. It’d work-”

"She knows.“ Phil didn’t meet his eyes. "She got her powers pretty early on. Didn’t know how to control them. Her parents were human, obviously.” 

"Obviously,“ Dan repeated quietly, the pieces fitting together. "You mean-”

Phil nodded. 

"Oh.“ 

Phil sighed. "It’s okay, you didn’t know. But… you shouldn’t have been talking to her about that. She’s just a kid, she shouldn’t be thinking about using her powers to kill people.” 

"To kill _humans_!“ Dan repeated, raising his voice. "Phil, they’re the reason we’re in tents right now! They killed, they _massacred_ us, and you want-”

Phil looked down, and Dan trailed off. 

"It doesn’t matter,“ he said, and for some reason, Dan wanted to apologize. "Please, just… let them be kids. You know I don’t like you killing the humans, but we can talk about that later. But don’t corrupt the kids. They’ve already dealt with too much, they shouldn’t be thinking about that.”

Dan shook his head. “I was just thinking out loud. But just like you said, they’ve already dealt with a lot, and they’re going to keep dealing. It’s not going to get easier, and they’ll need to know how to use their powers. Not that you’d know anything about that.” 

"I contain my powers,“ Phil spat, "which is more than you can say. It doesn’t matter, we’ll talk about it at the meeting tonight. It’s in about three hours, get some rest until then.” 

"I want to leave.“ 

He shook his head. "You’re staying in here until the meeting. Then we’re deciding what to do with you.” 

"What to do with me?“ Dan raised his voice, and he could feel his fingertips burning with energy. "I didn’t do anything wrong!” 

"You reminded one of the others about things she wanted to forget, you lashed out at the others, and you hurt Jordan.“ 

Dan’s resolve crumbled. He’d forgotten about the bolt of ice he’d accidentally let go earlier. "Jordan? Is she okay?”

"She’ll be fine. But you can’t let it happen again.“ 

Dan reached over, grabbing Phil’s arm before he could leave. Where his fingers touched, steam hissed. 

"You’re getting your powers back,” Phil noted. 

Dan shrugged. “Barely. It’s all collecting in my fingers, and I don’t have any control over it.” 

Phil looked at his hand on his arm, then straight at Dan, their eyes locking. “Get control over it. The council’s meeting tonight. Your powers are linked to your emotions, so until then, calm down. Meditate, maybe. When you get there, don’t get wild. Nothing bad’s going to happen unless you let it.” He looked at the hand on his arm again, which was no longer steaming, Dan’s power having already run out. With a gentle touch, Phil removed his hand. “I’ll be back to get you in three hours.” 

Dan didn’t stop him from leaving, just sat there. 

—-

Dan spent approximately one-hour sleeping and one infinity staring at his hand, trying to form some sort of ice or snow.

He couldn’t get out of the structure- now that he was more aware of his surroundings, he realized what it was. They brought it with them wherever they went, and though it was collapsible, it was impenetrable. When you are locked inside, there is no way out unless someone on the outside lets you out. They brought it with them so if a mutant lost control of their powers, they could be contained somewhere. 

To Dan’s knowledge, nothing had ever been created that could suppress mutant powers. There was no magic room or anklet or potion, nothing that could steal their powers from them. The abilities were a part of their DNA, and freezing things was as much of Dan as his height was. Even now, as he lacked any sort of control, he froze things: part of Jordan’s arm, and his insides, to name a couple. 

He remembered the pills they used to make him take. ‘Repressors’ that made his head spin and his abilities spiral. They made it more difficult to use his powers, but they also made it more difficult for him to think, hear, and breathe. 

Humans worked so hard to make him fit in, and at every step along the way they made his life more and more miserable. They deserved everything they had coming to them. 

—

As promised, Dan had collected himself for the meeting. 

Phil gave him a disposable water bottle filled with warm water to hold. Something to keep his powers in check. 

When Dan left his tent, remnants of anger still danced across his spine. But when he saw the others, all of that anger melted away. These were the people who accepted him. These were the _only_ people who accepted him. 

"How are you?“ Dan asked Jordan quietly, sitting next to her. Part of her upper forearm was wrapped tightly in white bandage, covering where she’d been hit. 

"I’ll be fine,” she muttered, observing Dan. “You going to be okay?” 

He shrugged. “Want to. I’ll probably have to get my emotions in check first, but I think I can do it.” 

She offered a little smile, like she almost believed in him. 

Jordan was in the group before Dan found it, though she was technically younger than him by almost a year. Orange-brown hair was constantly tied back in a messy knot, with a faded green headband holding the stray hairs out of her face. She was smart, probably too smart for her own good. Her powers had something to do with that. She was no mind reader, but she always seemed to know Dan’s brain a little better than he did. 

Jordan was a few inches taller than Dan, but she was stronger. She always carried the heavier packs. Always worked the latest, making sure everything was taken care of. Her voice was heavy, and every word made you think, but when she smiled you knew you did something right. 

Obviously, she was a part of the council. Along with her were Dan, Phil, PJ, and four others. They were the older ones in the group, and the others barely outnumbered them. 

They sat in a circle in the tent, and just like that, all eyes were on Dan.

"Dan, do you want to stay here?“ PJ started, his voice devoid of all humor. No formalities were needed.

He played with the water bottle in his hands. "Yes.”

"We want you to stay here,“ Jordan agreed, "But we also can’t have your current behavior continue.” 

"He’s sick,“ Phil pleaded from Dan’s left side. "He powers are being repressed, and we all know what that’s like.” 

The group collectively shuddered. In school, when Dan was told to repress his powers until they went extinct, he’d almost lost his personality along with them. It was a dark time- and everyone in the room could relate, on some level. First rule of being a mutant: you couldn’t continually repress your powers. They _will_ kill you. 

PJ nodded in Phil’s direction. “You raise a good point. What’s his current treatment plan?” 

"Lots of warmth. I’m trying to keep him in jackets and blankets, and the pills from earlier seemed to help.“ 

"Any improvements?”

"Too soon to tell. But if his powers are working internally, it’s important he stays warm.“ 

"Agreed. And the other issues-” 

"I won’t talk to Angie anymore about using her powers on humans,“ Dan interjected for the first time, raising his hands in mock surrender. "I got carried away.” 

"It isn’t about Angie,“ Jordan said, her voice an attempt at relaxing. "Vern can find and attract metal from the ground. What if you get to talk to her about finding a weapon, and using it?” 

Dan glowered. “Vern’s fifteen.” 

"Vern’s not here to kill humans. She’s here to be safe. For all we know, this camp is the only place for people like us.“ 

" _Mutants _like us,“ Dan corrected. "People is too ambiguous. Implies humans.”__

__"We’re humans,“ Jordan corrected. "Just with some add-ons.”_ _

__Dan snorted, turning away from her, a smile ghosting across his lips. “You ever consider comedy? Because you’d be great-”_ _

__"Dan, shut up.“ Dan was getting tired of seeing Phil’s look of shame. "You can’t talk to the others about using their powers for evil, not if you want to stay in the camp.”_ _

__Dan could feel the water bottle start to freeze in his hands, becoming harder in his hands. “Fine, I won’t talk to them about using their powers for evil. But what about using their powers period? We have nothing to be ashamed of, he’s I’m the only one who ever actually uses my powers!”_ _

__"You destroy cities!“ Phil exclaimed._ _

__"Yes! I destroy cities, and I kill people, _Phil_ , I kill humans and I make them suffer. But I contain it. I never freeze the camp.” _ _

__"We make camp far enough away,“ one of the others added._ _

__"I’ve never frozen the camp,” Dan repeated. “And you’ve seen these cities. You’ve walked in them, you know they’re not small. It wouldn’t be hard to freeze the camp too, but I don’t, because I have control over my powers.”_ _

__"But-“_ _

__PJ raised his hand, signaling silence. No one dared speak. They were all leaders of the camp, but what PJ says, goes. "He has a point.”_ _

__"We shouldn’t rely on our powers!“ Someone protested._ _

__PJ nodded slowly in agreement. "You’re right. But I think Dan might also be right. We should know how to use our powers.” He turned and looked Dan directly in the eyes. “We can start training sessions, when there’s free time. One on one and group. You’ll teach them.”_ _

__Dan opened his mouth to protest, but no words can’t out. Slowly, he closed it, swallowed hard._ _

__PJ turned to address the rest of the group. “Furthermore, I’m sure we can all agree to let Dan stay. There was an incident, but he has agreed to respect the new rules we’ve put in place.” He sighed tiredly, looking up at the ceiling of the tent, too thick to let anything in, but thin enough to tell how dark it was outside. “Anyone objects, stay behind and talk to me. Meeting dismissed.”_ _

__Dan didn’t know how he’d manage to follow their new rules. But he knew he’d have to try._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr dedicated purely to writing phanfiction [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/). You can also request a phanfic [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/ask). Please comment and tell me what you think!


	10. But He Knew What It Was

 They slept through most of the next day, and around sunset began packing. Packing always took little time, as they’d all been trained to gather supplies under duress, in case there was ever an attack on the camp. They began walking as night fell, with PJ and most of the council leading the pack, and Dan and Phil at the back. They all had powers, but everyone knew that in a crisis, Phil would know how to handle it best, and Dan would have no moral qualms about destroying any danger. They could debate whose powers were the best, but they couldn’t debate whose powers could cause the most destruction. When it came to destruction, Dan was your man.

 And if that didn’t work then Phil would just blow torch the danger.

 That was usually how it was. But this day was a little different.

 Dan, wearing a warm hoodie, pranced among the others, so happy it was beginning to make the others uncomfortable. He snuck up next to one of the younger mutants, Troy. "You’re a plant user?"

 The boy jumped. He had a blockish form and was rather large for someone so short, but despite his stubby walk, Dan knew that the boy could run. He was the most recent mutant that they’d found, and still seemed to be scared of the others, especially Dan. Dan relished in this.

 "U-Um, yes."

 "Yes sir," Dan corrected.

 The boy went pale. "Yes sir."

 "He’s just playing with you," Phil advised, coming up behind them. "We’re all friends here, no need for stuff like that. But you’re a plant user?"

 The boy's gait was still stiff, but he managed to smile down at his feet. Dan watched as the life returned to him, partially in awe. Phil’s words were as warm and inviting as his touch.

 Troy nodded, looking a little embarrassed to be talking about it. "I can’t make trees appear out of nowhere or anything. But I can kind of control... parts of plants."

 "Like the branches?" Phil suggested.

 "More like... pine cones." The boy shrugged. "It’s not really impressive. Not like your powers."

 Phil kept smiling pleasantly, but Dan could see his hand clench. Phil didn’t like people mentioning his powers. The only time he seemed okay with it was with Dan, but that was probably only because Dan understood. Still, he managed a convincing "No, I’m sure you’re powers are amazing!"

 Dan bit his lip. "Show me."

 Troy stumbled. "What?"

 "Come on, there’s bushes everywhere. Show us what you can do."

 Troy bit his lip, looking uncomfortable. Dan made a 'go on' gesture, and the boy sighed, giving in. "Over here."

 They walked to the side, hurrying to go a little bit ahead of the rest of the group. Troy knelt next to a small, scraggly bush, mostly dead. "I can, um, well..." He moved his hands over the bush slowly, like he was detecting it for metal. Slowly, buds appeared on the branches, sprouting into clumps of little gray-green leaves.

 Troy sat back, examining it with worry like it might not be good enough. A few droplets of sweat had formed on his brow.

  All eyes were on Dan, waiting for his response. "I.... I couldn’t do that," he finally relented. "Do you know if this bush has anything else when in bloom? Like... thorns, or anything?"

 Troy shook his head. "Just leaves."

 "Okay." Dan nodded, trying to think under pressure. The other mutants had stopped walking, opting to watch instead. "Can you try growing thorns?"

 Troy blinked. "What? They don’t-"

 "Just try."

 Phil looked worried. "Dan-"

 "Shush."

 Looking doubtful, Troy reached out and touched a branch, pinching it in between stubby fingers. Nothing happened. Everyone stood still, watching, waiting.

 Then, ever so slowly, a few small thorns made an appearance.

 Troy sat back, desperately trying to catch his breath. Dan smiled, a little deviously, and touching the baby thorns affectionately. They weren’t very sharp, but they were something. "Good job," he praised. He turned to the bigger group. "Shall we take a break? Let Thorn over here rest?"

 "We just started," PJ responded. "Have to make progress before morning. Dan, carry his sack, and we’ll keep going."

 Dan groaned, but scooped up the boy’s bag and put it on over his stomach, since he already carried one on his back. "Fine. Come on, little thorn, let’s get moving."

—-

 The sun was beginning to rise, so they made temporary camp. There was a river nearby, but the edges were laced with foam, a sign of pollution, so they couldn't use it to drink from or bathe in. They still had water left from the previous campsite, which would be enough for another day if they rationed it.

 Dan wished that he could make water somehow. He and Phil had tried, Dan creating snow and Phil melting it, but it was almost a murky blue-green color, unfit for drinking. It was one of the limitations of their powers; they were temperature based, not element based. Dan’s powers could affect water, but could not create water, just like how Angie could crystallize things, but she couldn’t actually make precious gems form. Powers were strong things that were seldom useful, or easily controlled, or convenient. They were tied to your emotions, meaning that the more unpredictable you were, the more unpredictable your powers were.

 That’s how powers were  _supposed_  to work. But Dan's powers hadn’t been working. Instead of freezing things in the world around him, Dan’s powers had switched around, deciding to freeze him from the inside out instead. So far, nothing bad had happened, besides Dan having to wear hoodies and coats to keep warm. But he still hadn't regained control.

 Phil found him later that night, sitting by the polluted river. There was a little stretch of water that didn’t move, set aside from the lake right next to the shore. Dan crouched next to it, willing it to freeze.

 "Any luck?"

 Dan almost fell in, he was so startled. "Phil! Don’t sneak up on me like that!"

 Phil crouched next to him, observing the water. It was a little cold, but not at all frozen. "It’s correct to assume that your powers are still on shutdown mode?"

 He grunted. "Pretty much. It feels... bad. I can hardly feel them anymore."

 Phil reached over, touching his arm. Dan looked up in surprise, but it wasn’t meant as a sentimental gesture. Instead, Phil felt his skin. "Well, on the bright side, you definitely aren’t warm. Your powers are still there, they just aren’t listening to you anymore."

 Dan looked down at his arms. His skin was always pretty light colored, but now it was becoming so light it was transparent. Blue and purple veins pushed against his inner wrists.

 "Dan?" Phil’s voice turned genuinely concerned. "You’re hands!"

 Dan turned his hands around, expecting to see more of the same. His hands often were very cold and pale, something even a little blue with cold. But when he turned his hands around, he almost couldn’t process it.

Dan's fingers were blue all right, the color becoming darker around his knuckles and at the tops of his fingers. However, that wasn’t what made Phil worried. No, he was referring to the other color. At the very tips, Dan’s fingers were beginning to turn black.

 He stared at them for a long few seconds, the word poison on his tongue. Dan knew what this was. He’d seen it hundreds of times before. In fact, he’d _caused_ it hundreds of times before.

 "Frostbite."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr dedicated purely to writing phanfiction [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/)  
> . You can also request a phanfic [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/ask)  
> . Please comment and tell me what you think!
> 
> Important: I'm doing a 12 Days Of Prompts on the days leading up to Christmas! That means that starting on the 14th (December 2017), I will be posting one fic a day through to Christmas! Those can be found on my tumblr [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/). I highly recommend checking them out!


	11. But He Lied

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to Pastel_Crybaby, who requested this update :)

  "So what exactly is your power?"

  Jordan hefted the firewood, sending Dan a warning glance. "The same as Phil's."

  "Fire? But-"

  "No,  _I'm_  the same as Phil. As in, I don't talk about it, and I don't use them."

  Jordan carried the firewood back towards camp, while Dan tried to follow her. "Why don't you want to use them? Powers are what makes us special-"

  "And they're why we were targeted." She dumped the wood next to their makeshift fire pit, blowing her reddish-brown bangs off of her face. "I appreciate you trying to help out and all, but I have no desire to use my powers. Go help Troy again. Maybe today you can make some leaves change color or have a weed produce sap." The way she said it, both were less than impressive. "Leave it be." Dan reached over to help arrange the wood, but she swatted his hand away, jolting on contact. "God Dan, your gloves are freezing!" She blinked, looking a little closer. "Why are you wearing gloves?"

  "It's nothing. And I washed them in the river earlier and they're still a little cold," Dan lied.

  "Are you sure? I don't know if I've ever felt anything so-"

  Dan shook his head. "I'll leave you alone. But trust me, you'll want to figure out how to control your powers sooner or later."

  "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I already can control them?"

  Dan waved it away with one gloved hand, walking away miserably. He had to help  _someone_  practice controlling their powers.

  He wrung his hands as he walked, the black globes doing nothing in the way of warmth. Phil had borrowed them from PJ without telling him exactly what they were for.

  Dan got to the edge of the clearing and stopped. He looked around for a moment. Everyone else was performing their duties, and no one was really around. Still, he trekked a few meters into the dense foliage until he was sure no one could see him, and pulled the gloves off.

  The worst part was that at first, he hadn't realized the skin wasn't part of the fabric. The black had spread. Now, it went all the way down the first two or three centimeters of his fingers, all the way to the first knuckle. It had been only a few days since he'd discovered the frostbite. If he were human, the blackened parts would have fallen off by now. But he was not human, and he had no idea how long he had before he was minus ten fingers.

  It had spread to his toes as well. The rest of his skin was pale and translucent.

  He was so busy staring at his hands that he didn't hear the arrow being drawn back.

  A loud  _THUMP!_  right to Dan's side almost made him jump out of his skin. He processed everything in a tenth of a second: the arrow lodged in the tree beside him, the figure moving through the trees so close it was a wonder how he hadn't seen before. Another arrow was drawn back, but this time, he'd heard it.

  Instead of running back, he ran forwards, ducking behind a tree as a new arrow slammed into it, burying itself on the trunk. Dan's eyes locked on the figure, and before she could notch another arrow he grabbed her, knocking the bow out of her hands and summoning his powers, willing for her entire form to turn to a block of solid ice. It wasn't the first time a human had found their camp, and it would end the same as it always did: with the human  _taken care of_ , and their camp moved by dawn.

  It would've worked. It would've worked so well- if only Dan's powers worked.

  No ice was produced. She hit him hard in the center of Dan's stomach, knocking his breath out and drawing another arrow at the same time, swinging to plunge it into his back. But Dan had recovered quicker than she'd thought, and without a moment he was behind her, knocking the quiver off her back and wrapping his arms around her torso as if he intended to squeeze the life out of her. But he didn't have to; as soon as he made contact with her skin, she screamed bloody murder, trying to shake him off desperately and wailing from the intense burns.

  Dan may not be able to control his powers, but he definitely still had them. He could make them work for him, even if they continued to fight against him.

  Footsteps came running. The girl, about Dan's age maybe, was writhing violently, her breathing ragged as Dan's very touch began to freeze her skin over.

  He'd thought he won. Then, like he was being hit with an invisible wall, he was thrown backward, hitting a tree and crumpling to the ground. He watched through blurred vision as she rapidly tried to grab her arrows, apparently not having realized there were more of them.

  PJ burst into the treeline right as she notched an arrow, releasing it with trembling hands. It hit a tree almost a meter away, her hands so shaky it was impossible to aim correctly. But he didn't surge forwards. "Stop! Calm down, we can talk about this."

  Dan didn't think she wanted to talk much. His intestines felt like they'd been freeze dried. However, he could appreciate Phil's attempt at peace. It would get him killed, but it was a nice thing to try.

  Now that she was no longer trying to kill him, Dan was able to look at the girl for real. She was wearing a pair of green cargo pants and a gray-brown shirt, dark brown hair pulled back in a bun and dark freckles spattered across her nose and cheeks. She notched her bow again but didn't release the arrow. "Who are you?!"

  "We're travelers!" PJ lied. "We're traveling to deliver a message. Please, put the bow down-"

  She released another arrow. It dissolved into confetti before it could reach PJ, and judging from the look on his face, he wasn't surprised.

  "I told you, we're travelers." PJ waved his hand, and the arrow she'd begun to load turned to multicolored paint in her hands, staining them with the primary colors. He stepped forwards, and Dan watched as he pulled the knife from his jacket. "And we don't need any humans getting in our way."

  He leapt forwards, thrusting the knife forwards, but right as he did a purple shield of energy appeared around her. As soon as his knife made contact, it bounced back with so much force PJ almost fell backward.

  "What-"

  Dan stood. She was distracted. He grabbed a branch off the forest floor, pulling it back to swing, right as the energy shield disappeared-

  "Dan, stop!"

  He was already in the motion of swinging and was so surprised by the voice that he stumbled, dropping the branch. The girl turned to him, fists ready when Phil burst through the clearing.

  "Stop!" Jordan was right on his heels, and she immediately froze as she saw the girl. "She's a mutant!"

  "I'm human!" The girl insisted, notching another arrow that turned to cupcake sprinkles in her hand. "Agh! Stop it!"

  "Stop trying to shoot us!" PJ agreed, hands raised like he expected her to pounce. "Just listen!"

  "We're mutants!" Phil explained. His hands were raised, showing he was unarmed. "And you're a mutant too. You just showed us your power. You can make force fields."

  "You're crazy," she snarled. "And you're _lying_. You're a mutant? Then prove it!"

  "You don't need any more proof!" Phil protested. His voice became calmer, still urgent, but less offensive. "The arrows. PJ made then turn into- dust, or whatever that was. A human couldn't do that." He stood a little straighter. "Come on. We have a camp. You don't have to wander alone anymore."

\----

  After much more convincing, Phil finally got her to accept his offer. Her name was Mandy.

  Phil offered to get her a first aid kit. "For the rashes on your arms," he offered. "What are those from? Poisonous plant?"

  "From... that guy." She nodded over to where Dan leaned against the tree, his gloves safely back over his hands. He glared right back. "He attacked me. Burned me, or something."

  "Only after she shot an arrow my way." Dan walked forwards, uncrossing his arms. "And missed, by the way. Real nice aim, miss-"

  "You burned her?" Phil's eyes got wide as he realized. "Oh! With-" he cut himself off, nodding quickly. "We have some ointment. It will make it feel better."

  "I don't need your help," she insisted. "I was doing just fine on my own."

  "Oh yeah, I'm sure." Dan raised his voice, sarcasm practically dripping off his words. "On your own, with a bow you can't even shoot with any accuracy?"

  "I'll show you how well I can shoot-"

  "Dan," Phil pleaded, giving him the look he always gave him when he was desperate. "Please. Go back to the tent? Warm up, a little, maybe?"

  "I don't need to warm up," Dan spat, still glaring at Mandy. "In fact, I'm in the mood for a little more cold. How does that sound Mandy? Tell me, would you prefer turning into an ice cube or a-"

  "Dan!" Phil begged. "Please!"

  Dan allowed his gaze to drift back to Phil. As soon as he saw his pleading expression, Dan knew he had to listen. "Fine. But if she tries to shoot me in my sleep, I can guarantee she'll have more than just a few _burns_  to worry about."

  Dan was sitting cross-legged in the tent, facing the wall opposite the opening.

  Phil climbed in, kicking off his shoes outside of it and crawling over so that he was sitting in front of Dan, who was playing with the gloves.

  "Can I?" Phil asked. Dan nodded, so he carefully slipped the gloves off, turning Dan's palms over in his hands. Dan half expected him to wince or pull away at the contact, but of course Phil didn't.

  The skin of Dan's hands was dry and cracked, the knuckles bloodied.

  "If she thinks these burns are bad, she's got another thing coming."

  "Dan, she has a name."

  "I know. She better watch out for when I get my powers back-"

  Phil set Dan's hands in his lap, shuffling to mess with the sleeping bags irritably. "Mandy's a mutant. Just like you. I thought your arch nemesis was humans?"

  "I thought you were on my side."

  "I'm just trying to watch out for everyone, okay? She's scared, and she's been alone for a long time. You've had us. She hasn't had anyone. She's just like you, just a little less... cold."

\----

  They sat on logs around the campfire, sitting soup from mugs. Dan sat so close to Phil that their sides were touching, the blanket wrapped around them hardly big enough for two. Phil's skin was warmer than the fire in front of them.

  Mandy came over to their circle, and a few people regarded her in a manner that was almost friendly. Phil smiled and offered her a spot to sit. "Dan and I can make room for you."

  Dan's lips had cracked. He moistened them again, but it hardly made any difference. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

  "Likewise." She sat, and for a moment their eyes caught. Her eyes were intense, and the freckles danced across her skin and dotted under her eyes like a constellation of shadows. For the first time, she seemed to notice Dan's condition. "Are you sick? You... don't look that great."

  Dan moistened his lips again. Even he could feel how cold he was, how miserably frigid his entire form was.

  "I'm fine," he replied, his voice a little lower than usual.

  But he  _lied_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr dedicated purely to writing phanfiction [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/). You can also request a phanfic [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/ask). Please comment and tell me what you think!


	12. But He Wasn't Dead

 It was a miserable night to walk.

 Mandy had been at the camp for a few days. She was surly and hostile, and everyone tried to leave her alone. One day, Dan had been sitting by the fire trying to warm up and watched as she gravitated towards Phil. He was the only one she really talked to unless she couldn’t avoid it.

 Dan could remember it relatively clearly. She had a winter coat on, as they all did. It had gotten colder. Dan decided to blame nature; it was a far better option than blaming himself. She shuffled over to Phil, and they talked quietly, Phil gesturing about something that could have been anything from how to boil water to how to drive a car.

 It was a random, and unimportant memory. Dan didn't know why he bothered to think about it.

 Then she left to go do some menial task, and Dan was asked to move. His aura was making the fire go out.

 Now they trudged along, and Dan considered asking Phil what the conversation had been about, if only just to hear his voice.

 They walked at the back of the group, as usual. Phil was alert for any danger, keeping his eyes out for anyone that could be following them. If something happened, he’d be in charge of protecting the group.

 Mandy slowed down and then stopped, waiting until Dan and Phil had passed her before walking again alongside Phil. "You have ice powers?" She asked Dan. "I asked Jordan. She says you’re one of the only people at camp proud of your powers."

 "That’s not true." With every exhale, Dan could see his breath. He couldn’t see anyone else’s. "The younger ones aren't shy. You see the girl up at the front, with the black hair? That’s Nora. When she got here, she wouldn’t shut up about her powers."

 "Yeah? What are they?"

 "X-ray vision," Phil answered for Dan. "Not the creepy type. She can see into people’s bodies, at their organs and stuff. Apparently it takes a lot of concentration, but I think it’s pretty cool."

 "It is," Mandy agreed. Her combat boots crunched on the gravel. "But most people don’t like talking about it? Why not?"

 Dan looked to Phil, letting him answer it. "...I guess it’s a sensitive topic," he admitted finally. "For some people. A lot of people were outcast by their families for it, and all of us have been hunted for it."

 "But I think that’s stupid," Dan cut in. "You can’t be in denial. We have the powers, we've dealt with the consequences of the powers. We as well use them."

 "How much can you really use ice powers?" Mandy's tone was purposefully harsh: she and Dan still weren’t on the best of terms.

 He inhaled, and cold air traveled through his windpipe to his lungs. "You’d be amazed at what I could do."

 "But isn’t your touch just like, really cold?"

 "It is. But that’s not how it used to be. I could control ice and snow, freezing over entire cities with just my mind. If I was at full strength, you’d be a chunk of ice right now."

 "But you’re not," she observed. "Why?"

 "Do you do anything but ask questions?" Dan snapped.

 "Yes. I also shoot things, which is more than you can do." She hefted her bow off of her back, loading it but not pulling the arrow back.

 Dan scowled. Phil muttered a quiet "Play nice," but neither of them really heard it.

 "You’d be amazed at what I can do even with my powers at low capacity."

 "Whatever. You should probably go to the middle of the group in case there’s danger. Trust me, you haven’t faced as many humans as I have."

 "Calm down," Phil urged Dan, completely serious. "Stay... Chill."

 A few snowflakes began to drift downwards, gliding delicately.

 "Yeah, like I have a problem with doing that," Dan spat back. But he managed to restrain himself.

 Mandy took note of this. "Fine, let’s talk about something else. Phil, what are your powers?"

 Dan lunged, his hands outstretched to strangle her. Phil grabbed him, yanking him back before Dan could show Mandy  _just how cold he could be_.

 Phil thrust him backward, and Dan landed on his butt, still seething. A purple sphere of protection flickered around the now wide-eyed Mandy, a few seconds too late.

 Dan stood, feeling the prickles of cold burn against his skin. "I can protect the camp better than you ever could. Just  _watch_." He practically spat the words, turning and whirling around without waiting to see her expression. He tore his gloves off, revealing his cracked skin and blackened fingers.

 There was a river a few paces away, wide enough that no one could possibly jump across it. But Dan didn’t have to jump. He slammed his foot down, and instantly the spot on the river turned to rock hard ice. He knelt, and everyone watched in horror as the river glazed over, becoming covered in a translucent layer of ice that progressively turned thicker, going stark white.

 It was snowing for real now, clumps of frost spiraling down angrily. Around everyone else, the snow hit the ground or their jackets and slowly melted away, but around Dan, the snow stuck. Majestic white ploofs of snow stuck in his hair. Dan’s skin was so white it was almost blue.

 Around him, a deadly white frost began to travel from his shoes, shooting up the nearby trees. The leaves crumpled in on themselves, and with a painful cracking noise, all of the branches fell off the trees at once, collapsing on the ground.

 "This is what my powers look like when I’m sick," he declared, his voice too quiet. "I’m sick. And I could still, I could still-" he struggled for breath as if his rib cage had suddenly compressed around his lungs.

 "Dan!" Phil rushed forwards as Dan crumpled to his knees, curling into himself on the frozen over river.

 Phil sprinted forwards, grabbing his shoulders and trying to haul him up as the ice at his feet sizzled and melted.

 "Phil, you’re going to fall in!" PJ warned, a few paces behind him. He moved a low hanging branch out of his way and it collapsed into confetti over his head as he cursed miserably.

 Phil dragged Dan’s limp form to shore, his boots sopping wet from the melted ice. Dan’s body steamed from where Phil touched.

 "You’re going to overheat him!" PJ warned. He reached over to help, but withdrew his hand quickly, stinging from the heat.

 Phil was kneeling on the ground, Dan laying over his knees. As Phil watched in horror, his skin lost all color. His cheek had cracked, like broken glass- or shattered ice.

 Phil was on the brink of hysteria. Dan’s chest rose and fell in twitchy motions, no longer smooth and controlled. "Get the first aid!" Phil ordered. "If you have secret healing powers, now is the time to use them!" He looked around wildly, but no one stepped forward. "Jordan! What are your powers? Can you help him?"

 She hesitated but stepped forwards. She couldn’t get all the way to Dan though; the heat was too intense. "Let me... I can’t heal. But I can sense his mind. He’s..." she closed her eyes. "No, nevermind."

 "What is it?!" Phil practically wailed.

 Jordan winced. "He’s not... thinking anymore. He’s not dead, but he’s in like... a coma, type thing. He’s passed out. His brain is using all of its energy trying to keep him alive." She looked up, turning quickly. "Nora! Come look at this!"

 Nora, the small Asian girl, scrambled over. "Let me look. Move back, it’s too hot."

 Phil clung to Dan’s body desperately. Finally, he laid him down, scooting back. Dan was laying in a puddle of melted snow, but as soon as Phil let go of him the water turned to harsh ice.

 Nora unzipped Dan’s coat, and Phil had to hold himself back to keep from screaming and shoving her off.  _No! He has to be kept warm, he has to be kept warm-_

 PJ reached out for Phil, but stopped once more, his clothing still scattered with confetti. Nora stared at Dan’s chest like she could see right through his clothes and skin- which, actually, she  _could_.

 Her eyes widened.

 "What is it?"

 "I can’t!" She hurried backward, standing and stepping away. "No, I- I-"

 "It’s okay." Jordan embraced her, and the small girl began to sob.

 Phil leaped forwards, supporting Dan’s head and pulling him up into his arms. Dan was curled up, his head lolling against Phil's chest as he cradled him to his body.

 His eyes were closed, long eyelashes spotted with flecks of snow. His eyes fluttered slightly but remained closed. His breathing was softening, little puffs of visible breath hitting against Phil’s coat.

 Phil was crying. "Mandy, can you make a forcefield around him?"

She stepped forwards, more unsure than ever. "What? You think someone’s going to attack him?"

 "No, just to... to give him more time. Suspend him, give us some time to figure out how we can... we can..."

 She pinched her wrist, biting her lip. "My powers don’t really-"

 "Just try!" Phil's voice broke, but he cleared his throat and kept going. "Just try. Dan’s all about using your powers to your advantage. Use them!"

 Mandy kept biting her lip. Finally, she nodded, and scooted forwards, closing her eyes. She held out her hands slightly.

 Nothing happened for a few minutes. Dan’s breath was slowing, becoming quieter and quieter. His lashes no longer fluttered. Meanwhile, Mandy's hairline was damp with sweat, but she didn’t open her eyes, and no one was about to dare break her concentration.

 Finally, after an infinity of waiting, Dan’s breathing stopped.

 Phil sobbed, staring as a thin layer of purple covered over the boy’s limp form, so close to his skin that from a distance he just looked slightly lavender tinted.

 He was no longer freezing cold. Phil willed himself desperately to lower the heat he was radiating, but he was so scared he hardly made a dent. The force field would protect Dan from the heat anyway.

 Mandy looked exhausted. "It’ll keep him alive for now," she explained. "I’ve never made anything like it before, but... he’s basically in a coma, but... not breathing or doing anything. It’s more like... he’s paused. Temporarily. As soon as I drop the field, he’ll resume, right where he was before."

 Her face was pink, and her hands were shaking slightly.

 "Does it keep energy to keep the field up?"

 "Yeah. It’s like... a lot of focus. I can’t really... think right now. Could someone get me water, and erm, something to eat?"

 A few of the others hurried over, helping her sit on a nearby rock and giving her provisions. Meanwhile, no one could go too close to Phil. The water around him was beginning to steam, but he tried to control his powers as he continued to cradle Dan, still completely limp against his chest.

 Dan wasn’t breathing. But he wasn’t dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr dedicated purely to writing phanfiction [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/). You can also request a phanfic [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/ask). Please comment and tell me what you think!


	13. But Mandy Might Not

  "Don’t blame yourself," Jordan advised.

  They sat outside of the tent, not sure what else to do. Phil was inside with Dan, and it was still too hot to get close to him.

  Mandy undid her bun and collected her pecan brown hair together, putting it back in its bun with shaking hands. Her energy was becoming more and more strained from supporting the force field around Dan, and her entire body ached.

  "It’s not you’re fault," Jordan repeated when Mandy didn’t respond. "You’re doing everything you can to help. This was going to happen no matter what, I promise you."

  "I don’t blame myself," Mandy said finally. The words came out harsher than she’d intended. "It’s fine. I know what you mean."

  "It’s perfectly natural-"

  "I already told you, I don’t blame myself. If I blamed myself for things like this then I would’ve have made it on my own."

  They were quiet for a few moments. "What’s your story?" Jordan asked, not making eye contact.

  "I need to focus."

  "Okay. Sorry." Jordan scratched at her fingernails, trying to shorten them a little more. "I get not wanting to talk about things. I don’t talk about my powers."

  "Oh yeah? And why not?"

  "Too much drama behind them. Not everyone has cool powers like those two." She sent a quick nod towards the tent.

  Mandy bit her lip. She could feel a small pressure against part of the energy shield; Phil was probably touching it. The shield absorbed his warmth and kept it from hitting Dan, which meant that she absorbed his warmth. "He has fire powers, doesn’t he?"

  "It’s none of your business."

  "I’ve never met someone with fire powers."

  "You’ve met other mutants?"

  Mandy winced, and she could feel the force field shudder too. "It’s none of your business. I’m sorry, but I really have to focus if I want to keep the field up. And I’m not going to be able to continue it for much longer. Tell Phil to stop mourning already and come up with a plan."

  "I’m not mourning," Phil corrected them from inside the tent. "And I’m also not eavesdropping," he added quickly. "I just tuned in when I heard my name."

  Mandy rolled her eyes. "Do you have a plan then?"

  "Yes. I’m just trying to think up a better one."

——

  Mandy leaned against the tent and closed her eyes. There was no way she could fall asleep, not with the intense exertion of keeping the force field up. But slowly, she found that she was able to think of other things and let her mind wander without having to completely focus on the effort.

  Her mind drifted, as it always did, to her friends. She pictured a tall boy with dark skin and darker hair. In his hands, he held a bluebird, which sat and chirped right at home. She pictured a smiling girl with stark red lips, stirring up a mug of hot chocolate without having to touch it. She pictured the stacks upon stacks of cans, the horses that didn’t like most of them and definitely didn’t like carrying the sacks or the riders.

  She reminisced, going through the memories like she was going through an old photo album. The highlight reel; the Good Parts(TM); the photogenic moments; the memories worth reliving.

  She stayed like that for a long time, long enough for Jordan to bring her a few more snacks and two bottles of water. Long enough for the constant pain to become so dull she almost forgot about it, and in a state of panic almost tore the tent open to make sure the force field hadn’t died. Inside, it was a sauna. Phil knelt at Dan’s side, looking surprised at the abrupt entrance, and then offered a faint smile. "You doing okay?"

  Mandy watched the boy on the ground's form, willing the force field to flicker. It did, and she was reassured of its presence. "I’m fine. Any... updates?"

  Phil gnawed on the inside of his cheek. "Just... let me know when Jordan gets back? I sent her looking for something for me."

  Mandy agreed, and went back outside of the tent, allowing herself to lean against it once more, exhaling a shaky breath.

—-

  Phil pressed the backs of his fingers against Dan’s cheek. The purple barrier rippled slightly.

  Jordan practically crashed into the tent, partially closing the flap behind her. Phil pulled his hand away from Dan’s cheek quickly, though he didn’t quite understand why.

  "I found one," she said quickly. "I think it’ll work. I... was able to sense it’s depth. Using my powers. I’ve never tried it before on anyone but humans, but what with Dan and everything... I thought it sounded right for me to try to expand my powers beyond their depths. Literally." She grinned painfully. "And I got Nora to spill about what she saw, inside Dan’s chest. It’s literally freezing over."

  Phil nodded. He’d expected as much. "Anything in particular?"

  She hesitated. "His... lungs. They’re frozen. Obviously, he was still managing to breathe, but it was becoming much more difficult. And the rest of his internal organs were beginning to get there too. She said... she said his heart was black."

  Phil inhaled sharply, looking down at the figure beneath him. Dan was laying flat. He looked so peaceful, so relaxed. You wouldn’t look at him and think that his heart was black.

  Phil lifted up Dan’s hand a few centimeters. He’d taken off his gloves before he froze over the lake, and Phil rubbed his thumb over the blackened fingers softly.

  He looked up when he realized Jordan was staring. "It’s frostbite," he explained. "He’s had it for... I don’t remember. A week? More?"

  "Doesn't frostbite cause your fingers to fall off?"

  "Yeah." He set Dan’s hand down. "We couldn’t figure out why it didn’t happen with his. It’s because of his powers, obviously. But I don’t know where his immunity to ice ends."

  "When it comes to the ice affecting him in different ways," Jordan suggested without a pause. "Like making it hard to breathe. Your powers are temperature based, right? Not element based?"

  "Mine? Yeah."

  "That’s probably how his work. He’s resistant to the immediate effects of the cold, like freezing to death or frostbite. But when it comes to secondary effects..."

  "Like his lungs freezing," Phil realized. "He has no way to melt it. And then... he can’t breath anymore." He looked down at Dan’s sleeping face.

  Jordan put her hand on Phil’s shoulder. "Hey. It’ll be fine. The good news is, that means your plan will probably work. Assuming defrosting his insides will cure him, it’ll work perfectly."

  Phil nodded. He’d been sure the only way to help Dan would be to warm him up, but it wasn’t as easy as that. There were a lot of ways to heat someone, and Phil was guessing that he’d have to heat Dan up pretty rapidly if he wanted him to survive. But it wasn’t like he could just set him on fire.

  A zipping sound was heard, and PJ poked his head in. "I hope you have a plan."

  "We do," Jordan confirmed. "Why?"

  "Mandy can’t keep her strength for much longer."

  Phil looked at Dan quickly. The force field was still intact. Dan would be fine for now.

  But Mandy might not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr dedicated purely to writing phanfiction [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/). You can also request a phanfic [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/ask). Please comment and tell me what you think!
> 
> I'm currently doing a 12 Days Of Prompts, where I publish a requested story every day for the 12 days leading up to Christmas (Dec 14 - Dec 25). You can find that masterlist [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/post/168551853918/12-days-of-prompts-masterpost)!


	14. But They Still Needed To Breathe

 Jordan carried Dan, and though he was lanky and a bit bigger than her, she didn’t seem to struggle with his weight. PJ and one of the other older mutants, Seth, walked with Mandy, supporting as much of her weight as they could.

  Phil walked behind Jordan, who lead. He went over the plan in his head again, trying to collect his energy for the big task. He didn’t know how much strength it would take, just knew that it would be a lot.

  The walk was painfully long, though that was likely just from the intensity of it all. Dan still wasn’t breathing, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was bad because _Dan wasn’t breathing_. However, it was good because it meant that Mandy's force field was still working, keeping Dan in a temporary pause. It kept him alive, at the expensive of Mandy's strength.

 Finally, they arrived, and Jordan laid Dan down on the side of the lake gently. Phil tried not to show his panic. The lake was too big, he didn’t have enough power, there was no way-

 "You have a plan?" PJ asked a little skeptically.

 "Yep." Phil’s voice was a few pitches too high. He cleared his throat. "It’ll work. I’m sure of it."

 "Yeah, okay." PJ looked like he'd decided to just believe Phil.

  _Anything we can do to help?_  Seth signed. He was a man of few expressions and even fewer words- none, in fact. He was mute.

 "Help me bring him to the middle?" Phil asked.

 Seth nodded, and they lifted Dan up, bringing him to the water. He floated on his back, and they swam him a few meters away from shore until Phil looked under the surface level of the water and was satisfied it was deep enough. Then they let him go. And he sunk.

 Mandy said the force field was airtight. Phil just hoped she was right.

 Seth swam back to the shore quickly. The water was already warming, and Phil wasn’t even trying yet.

 He held his breath, and dove under.

 Dan had sunk all the way to the bottom. His cheek was still split, like a china doll with cracks in its flesh. Phil could see his hands, cracked and blackened. His lips had gone blue. Dan’s lifeless body floated at the bottom of the lake, his hair drifting around him whimsically.

 Phil _had_  to help him. There was no alternative option. He refused to let Dan die, just like this. There was only one of him, and there was only one of Dan, and as cheesy as it sounded they were fire and ice. Their powers complemented each other perfectly. Dan was the only one who understood Phil, the only one who knew what it was like stuck with powers that controlled you, not the other way around. But Dan had taken control of his powers. He had bent them to his will, and used them for his cause.

 Phil made a silent oath that if he saved Dan, he would let Dan teach him to control his powers.

 The water heated up around him, vibrating with energy. Phil hadn’t realized that his hands had been outstretched, his entire body willing the lake to boil without bothering to ask his mind. He concentrated on his memories of Dan, willing the water to heat.

 Finally, Phil came up for air, gasping. He didn’t look to the shore, didn’t want to see their faces. Sucking in another breath, he dove back under.

 The water was so hot that if not for his powers, it would have been painful to open his eyes underwater. The entire lake had been transformed into a giant hot tub.

 But it wasn’t hot enough.

 Phil squeezed his eyes shut, willing with everything he had for the lake to burn and boil.

 The plan was simple: he had to melt the ice in Dan’s system. There were many ways to warm someone up, but only a few good ways to defrost someone. He had to boil Dan, giving the ice inside time to melt without burning his flesh.

 Phil came back up for breath. Then he went back under, and the water began to boil.

Geysers of bubbles sprung up from the lake floor, pushing Dan around softly. As Phil watched, the color began to return to his skin, and the cracks began to heal. 

 Phil could feel the exertion tug at every part of his body. But he willed it to just get hotter and hotter.

 The black disappeared from Dan’s fingers. Deep underwater, the boy’s mouth drifted open, and tendrils of black shot from his mouth, shadows wrecking through his body and swimming out, dissipating into the water. The unconscious boy projectile vomited darkness, his back arching and his entire body shaking.

 Then it stopped. Dan was suspended, his lips still slightly parted, his skin pristine and clear, back to its normal hue, if not a little more pink than normal.

 Before he knew what he was doing, Phil was taking another breath and diving under, swimming for him, all the while thinking _it worked it worked it worked_  and _he’s going to be okay, he’s going to be okay!_

 Dan’s eyes fluttered open, looking up at him. And as Phil kicked for him, he wondered _How can he open his eyes with the shield?_

 Then the shield flickered and died, and the water spilled in around Dan, filling his mouth and nose and wrapping around him. Dan was suspended in the moment, frozen in time, and Phil was just close enough to see the look of terror in his eyes.

 Phil reached out, and with one final kick, grabbed onto him. But as soon as he touched him, Phil knew something was wrong. His body was perfectly still, his expression unchanged from the relaxed, sleepy one he’d had in his forced pause.

 Phil pressed his hand against Dan's heart and felt nothing.

 Phil rushed forwards, and pulled Dan into him, kissing him.

 Dan kissed back for a beautiful millisecond, then gasped, inhaling a gallon of seawater. He choked, eyes wide with fear as Phil's own lungs pounded and screamed in pain, begging for attention. They needed air.

 He grabbed Dan’s hand and pulled him, kicking upwards. Dan’s skin was as soft as a newborn baby’s. Together, they kicked, pushing until they reached the surface and then gasping together, in unison, as one.

 Phil heard cheering on the beach, but it all felt surreal. Dan kicked clumsily but managed to keep himself afloat, grinning widely as he gasped for air. In the treading water, somehow Phil's hand managed to sneak over and find Dan’s chest, right over his heart. It beat steadily, stronger than ever before.

 Phil had been right to defrost Dan using his powers, and the lake. But it hadn’t been enough. Dan had lacked true warmth, and without it, he was just a shell, unable to move with a heart unable to beat. But the kiss...

 The kiss had made him warm, actually warm.

 Dan laughed, smiling wider than Phil had ever seen him smile. Dan leapt towards him, and suddenly they were underwater, in the burning boiling hot tub, kissing again. And Phil could hear his heartbeat in the waves. And Phil could feel his smile against his lips. And Phil wanted to stay right there, and just sink to the bottom of the ocean with Dan, and never worry about anything else again.

 But unfortunately, they still needed to breathe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr dedicated purely to writing phanfiction [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/). You can also request a phanfic [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/ask). Please comment and tell me what you think!


	15. But He Kept Quiet

Dan and Phil managed to get all the way to shore before they crumpled against their friends, still laughing and grinning like they were drunk. Dan looked four years younger, and his brown eyes shone like they’d been freshly polished, a shade or two lighter than Phil remembered them. Phil had never seen him smile so widely. He looked different, Phil realized, like something had changed from the time he was brought into the lake and the time he’d swam out.

* * *

 

 He recalled the blackness forcefully expelling itself from within Dan. But before Phil could think about it much more, he noticed a form leant up against a nearby tree.

 "Mandy?"

 "She collapsed," Jordan explained, helping him stand fully. "Didn’t pass out, which kind of surprised me actually. The force field shut down?"

 "Yeah." As Phil said the word, he could feel the impact of the past hour hit him as once, and he would’ve collapsed as well if Jordan hadn’t been holding him up.

 "Woah. Come on guys, let’s get back to camp."

 Phil was still smiling dazedly as they walked back to camp, leaning heavily on Jordan. He was careful to only touch her clothes, not her skin: he didn’t want to burn her.

 At least three people crowded around Dan, helping him walk. He looked almost drunk, smiling and grinning like he was coming down from anesthesia. The others held him up by his bare arms, and no one pulled away or seemed in pain at all.

 After the long walk back, they were helped into their tent. Jordan zipped it closed behind them, telling them to just sleep and that everything else could be figured out later.

 As soon as they were alone, Dan tackled him again, pressing their lips together. This kiss, their third kiss, was different. Less about necessity, and more about…. more about pure affection.

 Dan’s body trembled lightly, and they stopped quickly, both too weak to continue on. Phil took Dan’s hand, tracing it lightly with his thumb. The black was completely gone, and his skin was warmer than ever before- both in shade and in temperature.

 The realization hit Phil like a train. "You’re…"

 "I’m not," Dan promised. His voice was a whisper, quiet and smooth, and Phil realized that those were the first words Dan had said since he’d been cured.

 Cured. Phil breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "You’re fine? You’re okay?"

 "I’m okay." His voice was still in that smooth, soft tone.

 "Then we’ll figure it out later," Phil decided, repeating Jordan’s words. Had she known about Dan’s state? Phil had never understood her powers, which she made sure of. But she’d been able to sense Dan’s mind at work earlier. Had she done the same thing just moments before?

 Dan and Phil climbed into their individual sleeping bags, just a little closer than normal. Dan fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and Phil wasn’t far off. But the same thought kept nagging at the back of his mind. Dan’s baby soft skin; how everyone had been able to hold his hands and touch him with ease; his skin tone, which was now a warmer tone, as opposed to his normal icy hue. If he were a human, he’d look healthy. But that was the thing- he wasn’t supposed to be a human.

———-

 Dan didn’t know how long he slept for, just that it had been a long time. Phil was gone, and he could look around the tent, meaning it was day. It had been day when he collapsed- he thought. His brain hummed, like he’d been given a painkiller he wasn’t quite prepared for. His entire body felt warm, like he was trying to assimilate himself into the sleeping bag.

 A sharp breath left his mouth, and he coughed, doubling over and choking out a few painful coughs into his sleeve. When he sat back up, a little bit of black goop had formed on his shirt, the consistency of blood.

 "Dan?"

 Dan quickly wiped the goop away, sitting up more as Phil unzipped the flap. "You’re up!"

 Dan offered him a small smile. His memory was a broken puzzle that he had to piece back together one by one. Four pieces clicked together, forming a memory of Phil’s lips against his at the bottom of a lake.

 Phil looked a little uncomfortable. "Um, we have lunch ready. Do you want to come eat?"

 Dan’s stomach felt completely empty, yet he didn’t feel any hunger. That was a  good way to describe it- empty. A heavy backpack with nothing inside.

 "Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute." Dan felt almost as surprised as Phil looked. Was that… was that his voice? He touched his throat self consciously. His skin felt different, more doughy than usual. "Do you… do you have a jacket that I could borrow? I’m uh, I’m really cold."

 That was a new feeling. Cold. Dan had felt it before, but this was a different breed. He’d never minded it before.

 With a red, slightly too big hoodie wrapped around him, Dan emerged from the tent into the light of day. Everyone was eating a few paces away from the camp, sitting on the ground in the shade of the trees. Dan followed a few paces behind Phil, his body feeling strangely new, like he’d been power washed when he wasn’t looking.

 Everyone looked up with they heard him. "I’ll grab you food?" Phil offered, hi# voice still a little unsure. Dan nodded, scanning the forest floor for somewhere to sit.

 He sat cautiously, leaning against the same wide tree Mandy sat against. She looked utterly exhausted, like she was still recovering from running a marathon.

 "What was his name?" Dan asked, careful to keep his voice down.

 Her eyes widened, staring straight ahead. "Whose name?"

 "The boy. With the animal powers, the one who held the bluebird."

 Mandy turned and stared at Dan like she’d seen a ghost. "What?"

 "I saw him," Dan started. He cut himself off with a round of coughing into his sleeve that stopped all conversation. He wiped the black goop away before anyone could see it. "In my dream," he admitted, more aware of the others looking at him. "And other people. A girl, with a mug of hot chocolate? She stared at me like…" he blushed, ending the sentence there. "But she wasn’t staring at me. I don’t really know what it was. Just, that she was staring at you."

 "Lunch is served," Phil announced, plopping down next to Dan, oblivious to the conversation. He passed a sandwich Dan’s way, biting into his own.

 Dan fingered it, then took an experimental bite. He nodded, deciding it was good.

 "We need to make a plan," Jordan decided, leaning against a tree with a sandwich of her own. "You lied to us." She was staring at Dan, and he lowered his gaze, more focused on his sandwich.

 "Let’s talk about this later," Dan begged. "With the council."

 "We’re all here," PJ argued. "And we’ve waited this long."

 "Then we can wait a little longer," Phil  defended. "Dan just got up. Let’s give him a little time to recover before jumping him.

 He caught Jordan’s eye. She was smirking slightly, and Phil could almost hear her voice, as if she’d invaded his head: it’s not like you waited very long to jump him.

 Phil shook his head, and Jordan looked away, picking at her nails.

 "We need to get moving," PJ announced. "At nightfall, we’ll start walking and make camp when dawn starts to break. We’ll meet before we pack up." He stepped out from under the trees, peering into the sky. "A few hours. Until then, everyone do your tasks as normal. Dan can talk to me in private if he’s too weak to walk or do his tasks."

 "I’m fine," Dan defended, his voice not annoyed but actually meek. It was unsettling.

 "Good. Let’s go then."

——-

 Jordan hurried to catch up with then. "Hey Phil, hang back."

 Both Dan and Phil stopped, but Jordan requested Dan go ahead. He nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets as he climbed into his tent.

 It was already beginning to get dark. No one had been in the mood for fast preparation, and it had taken longer than they’d expected.

 Jordan pulled Phil to the side. "I know for a fact that you’re not planning on telling the truth to the council. And I won’t tell them you’re lying. But you have to tell me the truth."

 She was right. Phil had spent most of the day trying to find the best words to use, the ones that made everything seem as ‘all right’ as possible. Everything that was going on with Dan felt like more personal issues, and neither of them wanted to let the council know all of the details.

 Phil sighed. "Something happened. I don’t know what. In the water, the darkness was literally expelled from Dan. I don’t understand how or what it was, but I haven’t told him yet."

 Jordan frowned. "What?"

 "Yeah. He’s been acting a little… off lately. I think it must be his heart. All that black that was expelled must have been from his heart."

 Jordan was still frowning.

 "What?"

 She hesitated, as if unsure how much to tell him. Finally, she relented. "Phil… his hearts still black. Nora looked earlier. She says… she says it scares her. If she’s seen anything like it before, she hasn’t said, but… well, he scares her. She thinks he’s…" she didn’t need to finish the sentence. Phil knew what the connotations might be with having a heart made out of shadow.

 "You guys coming?" PJ asked, walking up to the tent.

———

 Dan smiled at Phil when he came in, and for the first time since the incident, Phil saw a shred of what Dan used to be. There was a glint in his eyes, like they were sharing a secret but Phil didn’t know what the secret actually was. Then it switched off, and Dan looked down at his hands in his lap.

 "You lied," PJ said, starting the meeting off without any unnecessary formalities. His friendly disposition from only moments prior had been dropped, and all of his annoyance was aimed directly at Dan. "You were sick and you didn’t tell us. I don’t know what we could have done, but perhaps we could have come up with a plan that wasn’t so dangerous."

 Dan played with his fingers shyly. They were a soft color, a little pink, and showed no traces of the stark black frostbite that had covered them earlier in the week.

 He didn’t look like he was going to speak up, so instead Phil did. "I knew."

 "Obviously."

 "Look, he’s better now. We figured it out, okay?"

 PJ scratched his leg. "Is he though? Dan, are your powers back to normal?"

 Dan tensed up so much Phil thought he might actually curl up. "No," Jordan interrupted, "Dan does not have to answer that. His powers are his business."

——

 They walked in silence for a long time.

 Dan and Phil were at the back of the group. Mandy had walked with them for awhile, but then she’d gotten into a conversation with Jordan and moved to talk to her. Dan and Phil drifted further and further back until they were out of hearing range, and even then they didn’t talk.

 They ended up setting up camp in the woods by an enclosed town a little ways away. After they had a chance to rest and eat they’d explore the city, looking for stray mutants and replenishing supplies they couldn’t find in the woods.

——-

 Dan was no where to be found.

 Phil searched around the full camp, checking around the tents and even checking inside each tent. Then, when he still didn’t find him, Phil searched the woods around the camp. Dan was still recovering from everything that had happened, and so far, his powers hadn’t shown any hint of coming back. Dan was wearing gloves and coats and layers in an attempt to stay warm.

 Phil had been searching for a full fifteen minutes when he found him. His coat and gloves were stripped off, and he lay on his back in a snow bank. He wore a thin long sleeve shirt that probably provided no warmth when pressed against the freezing snow.

 "Dan," Phil said, slightly out of breath. "What are you doing?"

 "Nothing." His voice was barely a murmur. Phil still hadn’t gotten over how soft it was.

 "Aren’t you cold?"

 Dan’s nose and ears were pink. He stayed quiet for a few moments, starring up at the sky.

 "Dan?"

 "I don’t want to lie," he whispered.

 Phil nodded. He understood. "Do you want to go to the tent?"

 His voice was so quiet Phil almost had to read his lips. "No."

 "Do you want to be alone?"

 Dan was trying not to cry. "No."

 "Okay." Phil looked at the snow, unsure. "I can’t lay down without it all melting."

 "Yeah."

  "So… I’ll just sit."

 Silence. "Okay."

 Phil shuffled down, careful not to slip. He sat by Dan’s feet, and leaned back, looking up to the sky.

 "We’re going to the city tomorrow."

 "Yeah."

 "If you want, you could-"

 "I’m going," Dan cut him off. "I don’t care about what my powers are doing. I don’t know, they’re shut off right now. But I’m going."

 "But what about-"

 "I’m going. I’m sorry."

 Phil waited. "You done?"

 "Yes. No. I don’t know."

 "Just let me finish, okay? Just…. do me a favor? Stay low key? And if you find something, find someone else. That way you’ll have backup."

 "I don’t need backup."

 "Maybe you do." Phil thought back to his conversation with Jordan earlier that day, about Dan’s blackened heart and what it could mean, and then to Dan’s smirking face when he saw him immediately after.

 Dan huffed. "I need something. Something I can’t find with other people around."

 "What do you-"

 "Phil. Please." Dan pleaded up at the early morning sky, still dark with only a few stripes of color through it. "I just have to be alone. I feel like… like I dropped something along the way. Like something’s off. And the only way I can find it is if I let it find me."

 Phil traced his hand through a small puddle of melted snow on the ground. "I don’t understand."

 "I don’t either," Dan agreed. He hesitated. "Thank you. For, erm, saving me earlier. With the lake and all. That was smart."

 "You would’ve done the same for me."

 "I wouldn’t have thought to use a lake. I don’t know. But I wanted to thank you. I 'preciate it." He sat up, crawling over to where Phil sat, sitting on the edge of the snow bank just a little above him. His ears and nose were pink from the cold. He leant over and pressed a little kiss to Phil’s cheek. "Thank you."

 And there were so many things Phil wanted to say, Questions he didn’t need answers. But he kept quiet.

 "You ready to go to bed?"

 

 "Yeah. Let’s… let’s do that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't written the next chapter yet (as of this publishing date, 12/20/17), but I know what's going to happen and I'm really excited for it. It's going to be epic. 
> 
> Check out my tumblr dedicated purely to writing phanfiction [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/). You can also request a phanfic [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/ask). Please comment and tell me what you think!


	16. But He Had Him Anyways

  Dan walked along the stone streets, his hooded cloak billowing around him. He no longer felt ill, no longer felt weak. That morning, he'd try to make a little ice form on a tree, then tried to make it snow, then tried to scare Mandy by touching her arm, which usually resulted in causing someone to jump from the unsuspected cold. She didn't jump, and his powers showed no signs of returning.

* * *

 

  They broke into the town in the early morning when people were starting to get out and go about their daily tasks. In a city such as this, there were two objectives: to replenish their supplies and to search for any mutants. Dan was always in charge of the latter. Stray mutants could be anywhere, from locked away in a prison to living life normally, their powers either so weak that they could be easily hidden, or ones that weren't obvious at sight. Jordan could have lived in a city, going about normal life and no one would ever question her. Dan wondered why she didn't.

  He scowled, walking a little faster. That wasn't him,  _he_  knew why Jordan didn't stay with the humans. They were cruel, they massacred mutants, she was better off with others of her kind.

  He stopped at a fountain, still running despite the cold. He held his hands up, closing his eyes and imagining it frozen. Solid ice, held up only by its own stubbornness.

  He opened his eyes. The fountain was still going, not even a little bit of it frozen.

  Dan kept walking, keeping an eye out for anti-mutant propaganda. He turned into a busy street, and watched each person carefully, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

  He hated them. The humans, living their lives normally while Dan was forced to migrate, walking from city to city in the cloak of darkness, never being able to call anyplace a home besides the tent he folded and unfolded day after day after day. At one time, he'd lived a life that was almost normal. He was an outcast from society, but he was still a part of it. And they couldn't even let him have that.

  He made his way all the way through the busy street and turned a corner, pretending to know where he was going. He followed the street until it lead to a dead end, with graffiti art covering the walls.

  Dan knelt next to some of the text, trying to read it but it appeared to be in a different language. The only word he could pick out was 'mütantes', which he could guess was mutants.

  He stood and turned around, and for the first time, realized he wasn't alone in the alley.

  Four masculine looking figures blocked his path. One stepped forwards and barked at him in a language he didn't speak. But he could interpret: 'You don't belong here, so we're going to capture you/kill you/feed you pancakes until you explode.' Dan didn't know what the threat actually was, but he knew a threat when he heard one.

  He looked around the alley. Some tools were strewn to the side, and he walked over slowly, his hands raised in surrender. The human leader shuffled, not quite sure what to make of it.

  Dan picked up a wrench from the tools, feeling it, but it was too short. He considered just hefting the whole box when something underneath it caught his gaze. He moved the box and pulled the long, black crowbar free, testing out its weight in his hands. It must have been some sort of metal because it packed a significant amount of weight.

  Dan turned and swung. The crowbar hit the first person in the head and they fell backward, unconscious. Dan reared the metal bar back again as the other three men scattered, and he swung it over his head, hitting another one of them as they cried out in the other language.

  Dan grinned. His powers were gone, maybe temporarily, maybe... long term. But he wasn't weak. He had his cause, and he would fight for it until his last breath.

  For the first time since the incident, he felt like himself again.

  There was blood on his face, he realized, but he didn't care. Dan grinned, the grin of a madman but he didn't care because he was tired of being taken care of, tired of being weak and tired of being helpless. He was a force of nature.

  Even without his powers.

 Someone shouted his name, and Dan swung one last time, downing the last person, their hands on some sort of communication device from their belt. They fell limp, and a person talked frantically through the device in that other language.

  Dan straightened, checking that all of them weren't moving. Only then did he turn and look Mandy in the eyes.

  She was standing still in shock. "What happened?"

  "They cornered me." Dan knelt and used the fabric of one of the men's cloaks to wipe the blood from his crowbar.

  Mandy knelt, and carefully pressed his ear against one of the human's chests. "He's dead."

  Dan didn't say anything.

  "You killed them."

  "I know." Dan hooked the crowbar in his belt, hiding it under his cloak. "We need to go. They called for backup, I don't know how much information-"

  "Okay." Mandy stood, brushed off her own cloak, and took one last look at the bodies before looking up at him. "I'm sure they deserved it."

  Her tone was so full of malice and anger that Dan wondered what the humans had done to her. Their camp full of mutants was a camp full of stories no one dared to tell, memories of anger and injustice that has been swirling around for so long without an outlet that eventually, the anger became benign and turned to a grim sort of outlook. Dan didn't have that outlook because he still had that anger, and was willing to use it to get revenge. Phil didn't have that outlook because he refused it, instead insisting upon being caring and happy, spreading literal warmth wherever he went. And Mandy didn't have that outlook either, perhaps because all of her scars were too fresh. Humans had done her a great injustice, and she still had that fresh anger, the sense of /How dare they?/

  They hurried out of the alley, and literally collided with someone. Dan was about to retrieve his crowbar when he felt the burning touch, and stepped back, processing his face. "Phil!"

  "We have to go," he was saying, "Something with Jordan. We've been found out."

  He grabbed Dan's hand and pulled him towards the alley when Dan almost shouted: "Wait!"

  "What?"

  "It's a dead end," Mandy explained, giving Dan a look. "Come on, this way!"

  With Mandy leading, the sprinted away, their hands still intertwined. Phil's touch was very warm, but not painful. Dan took it as a good sign, that if he still had some resistance to temperature then maybe his powers weren't completely gone after all.

  They ran at full speed, cloaks billowing behind them. Mandy lead them through the streets with a painful amount of familiarity, taking them on the back roads that kept them out of the large crowds of people. Finally, they found their entry spot- a hole in the city wall where a few of the large stones had been reduced to confetti that read 'happy birthday!', courtesy of PJ. Mandy slid through first, as lithe and agile as a fox, and Dan and Phil quickly followed suit. They barreled into the forest, still sprinting as Mandy drew her bow and notched an arrow in it, glancing behind them to make sure they weren't being followed.

\-----

  The creek was small, but it had cold water that moved relatively fast, which were both good signs that it was clean. Dan and Phil sat by it, and Phil dipped his fingers in the water before carefully wetting Dan's cheek. "Who cut you? Your cheek is still sort of bloody."

  Dan didn't answer, instead staring at the stream as Phil continued to wash off the blood. Finally, he pulled up the edge of his cloak and wiped the last of the blood away, revealing Dan's normal skin, devoid of any scratches or cuts. "Oh," he said as he realized.

  Dan played with the crowbar next to him, trying to line it up so it was perfectly perpendicular to the stream. "They were humans," Dan explained.

  "Was it self-defense?"

  Dan inhaled. "You could call it that?"

  He exhaled as Phil rested his head on his shoulder, as if he was too tired to even hold it up anymore. "Okay," he said quietly, as if giving in. "Let's just call it self-defense then."

  They stared at the stream, the clear water trickling over smooth stones, only a few centimeters deep at best.

  "I made myself a promise," Phil started, still staring at the water. He radiated warmth, and Dan never wanted him to move, never wanted to be without that warmth again.

  "Yeah?" he said, a little more quietly than he'd intended.

  "Mm-hmm. I said that if you survived- the whole frostbite thing, after you passed out and we weren't sure if you'd be okay- I said that if you survived that, I would let you teach me to control my powers."

  Dan considered this. "And you still want me too?"

  "Yeah. I... I don't know. Part of me wants to learn. I've always admired you for your control, I don't know if you knew that. But I find it pretty amazing. You just... you could always bend the cold to your will, and though I didn't always agree with it..." he took a shaky breath, "I do think it's pretty amazing."

 _Dan always could bend his powers to his will._ The past tense ached, like a sore muscle that had just been worked a little too hard. Dan swallowed dryly. "Thank you."

  He rested his head against Phil's, sighing. He didn't deserve Phil, deserve his wholesomeness and kindness and the way he radiated love just as easily as he radiated heat. He truly didn't deserve him.

  But he had him anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr dedicated purely to writing phanfiction [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/). You can also request a phanfic [here](https://dansphlevels.tumblr.com/ask). Please comment and tell me what you think!


	17. But What If It Followed Them?

"Everyone, pack up and run! Go go go!"   
  
 Jordan was the first to respond, rolling out of her tent and beginning to rapidly disassemble it with Mandy still inside. "What’s going on?!"  
  
 "Forest fire! We need to leave, _now_!"   
  
 The others crawled out of their tents, still bleary-eyed from sleep. PJ had had the last shift, meaning he’d had less than an hour of sleep, so little that when he grabbed onto one of the tent poles to haul himself up, it immediately turned to multicolored dust and he faceplanted into the mud. "Dammit! Dammit dammit dammit, that’s the third tent this month!"   
  
 Dan sprinted over to his tent, sliding slightly in the mud. He ducked inside, stuffing the sleeping bags into packs and pulling the ties. He climbed out quickly, pulling the support lines and collapsing the tent, rolling it up tightly and shoving it into its place on his backpack.   
  
 He hefted it onto his back and looked around frantically. All the others were up at the point, desperately packing up. "Where’s Phil?" PJ called out, making eye contact with Dan as he ran over to the coals in the fire pit, stomping them out. "He’s fine! He’s trying to control it!"  
  
 "Shouldn’t you be the one putting it out?" Jordan asked, stuffing her own tent into her bag. Next to her, Mandy's eye bags were more prominent than ever, her eyes searching around for danger.   
  
 "Sorry, my powers aren’t exactly working at the moment, but don’t worry. Phil’s got it under control!"   
  
 A few meters away from camp, a tree burst into flames, the fire climbing up the tree faster than it should’ve.   
  
 "Go go go!" PJ called out, slinging his sack over his back. "This way!" He lead the charge out of the camp, and together, they sprinted through the dense foliage, desperately skirting around the trees and leaping over rocks, Dan with both his and Phil’s packs on his back.   
  
 It would have been very convenient is that was it. If they had been able to just run like a herd of highly coordinated deer, a team of renegades tearing through the forest, muscles flexed and breathing steady from the hundreds of hours of travel over foot they did every month. It would have been very convenient.   
  
 But their powers wouldn’t have it.   
  
 The first person whose powers turned on them was PJ. His powers were based on some aspect of creativity, which meant that when his heart raced his mind raced equally as fast and he had to concentrate to contain them, which was near possible when the adrenaline kicked in. He leaped over a rock, bumping into the side of a tree which immediately crumpled on top of his team in a pile of multicolored balls of crumpled paper. "Sorry!" He called back as the others waded through it, their bags thumping against their backs.   
  
 It was hard to tell whose powers went against them was hard to say, but it was likely Angie. Her messy hair tucked into a small beanie, she bounded over patches of damp leaves and past trees leaking sap. From the solids came liquids, crystals ranging from the size of sand to the size of a football poking out at every angle, threatening the other with their sharpened points.   
  
 Then came Seth, then came Troy with the leaves turning towards them pointedly, then came Jordan, the words  _run run run_  bouncing around everyone’s thoughts like a collective humming, pushing them to go faster, faster, faster, until the heat was beginning to die down and they knew that the fire was growing further away.   
  
 "Stop!" PJ announced, stumbling to a stop and doubling over against a tree, his lungs and heart working overtime after having just been in a deep sleep. The tree remained a tree, which meant that he had regained control of his powers, however temporarily.   
  
 Dan panted, looking back. Phil was still nowhere to be seen. "I have to find him!"  
  
 "We don’t have time!"  
  
 Just then, the wall of fire crashed through another layer of trees, growing far too fast and raging far too angrily for it to be naturally made. At once, pine needles rained down on them and the tree PJ was leaning against shattered into colorful stained glass, collapsing into the ground with a horrible shattering noise as glass shot out in every direction.   
  
 "Run!" Dan called out.   
  
 Mandy looked to the front of the group, who was already running, and then at Dan. Then she grabbed his hand, tugging him behind her as she began to run.   
  
 "No, let go!"   
  
 "You’re going to run straight into the fire and get barbecued! We can find Phil later, I’m sure he’s fine."   
  
 Dan twisted his arm around, pulling out of her grip. "Go, I’ll see you later!"   
  
 He turned and immediately ran straight into a glowing purple force field. But before Mandy could grow it bigger to completely block his way, he sidestepped it and jogged straight into the fire.   
  
 The fire didn’t burn him- per say.   
  
 It stung. It sizzled. It hit his skin and popped against it, broiling him and tingling uncomfortably. The heat in itself was nearly insufferable, and it hit his face like a wave. He craved to sink to the bottom of the lake once more.   
  
 He jogged back the way they came, jumping over falling tree limbs and trying to stay out of the biggest flames, which was nearly impossible. The heat didn’t bother him as much as it should’ve, but still he could feel his skin burn.   
  
 The smoke made his lungs turn black and his fear to rise up his throat.   
  
 He started running faster, knowing that he only had so much time left before the fire took over completely.   
  
 "Dan!" Before he could look up, a person barreled into him, attacking him with a bear hug. "What are you doing, your powers aren’t working! You’re going to get burned!"   
  
 Dan’s vision blurred from the heat, and his nose was filled with the stretch of burning. Phil’s arms were still wrapped around him, as warm as the fire itself, but more warm than hot. Dan liked being warm. He didn’t like being on fire.   
  
 "We have to get out of here," Dan said as if it weren’t obvious enough.  
  
 Phil nodded. "I can’t control it. I thought I could, but now it’s just feeding off of my power."  
  
 Dan looked around at the huge fire burning around him. It was burning because it had been lit, and there was wood and oxygen to fuel it. But it was burning as fast and as intense as it was because it had another kind of fuel: Phil.  
  
 "You’re really bad at controlling your powers," Dan noted, smiling with his eyes. "We should probably not try practicing again at nighttime. And... we should also probably get a bucket of water or something to keep nearby."  
  
 Phil scratched behind his ear. "I guess. I just kind of figured that this sort of thing doesn’t happen more than a few times in your life. I didn’t expect to cause   _another_  forest fire."   
  
 Dan snorted. " _Another one_? You make it sound so boring." He felt a pain traveling up his leg, and quickly patted out the flame that had begun to climb his jeans. "We should go. I don’t actually have fire powers."  
  
 "On the bright side, this must mean your powers aren’t completely gone! You’re still heat resistant-ish. That’s good news, isn’t it?"   
  
 Dan tried for a smile. "Let’s go find the others. They’re probably worried."  
  
 He started walking away, but Phil quickly pulled him back. "Hey, wait. It’s going to be okay."   
  
 Dan bit his lip, doing his best to avoid Phil’s gaze.   
  
 "Maybe they’re just waiting for the right time to come back," Phil added. "When the time is ready. They might just need a little break, you know?"  
  
 Dan grimaced. "I’m fine. Let’s go."   
  
 "Wait," Phil said, pulling Dan close to his chest and kissing him quickly. "It’s going to be okay, I promise."   
  
 Dan's eyelashes fluttered. "Phil..."  
  
 "Now come on, we have to go. Otherwise, you’re going to literally be toast."  
  
  
——-  
  
 They made their way out of the fire slowly, retracing their friends' steps. It wasn’t hard. Huge spikes of crystals had formed on the trees and in little clusters on the ground, and there was almost a visible trail of multicolored dust, courtesy of PJ and his abundance of creativity.   
  
 Finally, after a long walk, they got to the edge of the fire, which also happened to be the edge of the forest. A large field was splayed out before them, completely black with grass that appeared to have been burned a few days prior. The fire wouldn’t be able to continue past it.   
  
 They kept walking through the field and up the hill that followed, so steep they had to get on their hands and knees and crawl for part of it.  
  
 "They’re here!" Jordan called, just out of sight. Then her face appeared, and she offered her hand, helping them to their feet.   
  
 The others were sitting on the top of the hill, drinking from canteens and laying on the ground, looking up at the sunrise, clouded and hazy from smoke. "Glad to see you’re not dead," PJ expressed tiredly. "Oh, hi Phil. I’m guessing you have some idea of what started that fire?"   
  
 He was the level of annoyed that Dan knew not to mess with. PJ was generally very caring and seldom appeared to experience negative emotions besides a calm, understandable level of concern. This was not a calm, understandable level of concern, it was flat out, Dan-level annoyance. And when Dan was in that mood- when Dan _had_  been in that mood- you didn’t touch him unless you wanted instant frostbite. Dan didn’t want to turn into a pile of rainbow-colored sand, so he figured the same root should be undertaken when it came to PJ.   
  
 "Forest fires are a natural part of the ecosystem," Dan defended studiously. "I’ve read that it’s actually healthy."  
  
 "It is!" Phil agreed quickly. "And so is exercise. We’re all going to be so fit!"   
  
 PJ was not amused. Luckily, he was also apparently too tired to get up from where he laid on the ground, his face pink from the heat and his sleeping bag nowhere to be seen. Dan wondered where it was for a moment, before realizing that the grass around PJ's head was speckled with glitter.   
  
 "Is it working?" Jordan asked, walking over to Mandy, who was sitting on the side of the hill, her hands reaching out to the fire at the end of the field and her nose crinkled with concentration. Dan followed her, standing by them as the two girls talked.   
  
 "No. I didn’t think my powers would be strong enough, but I had to try. I’ve seen something like it done before, but that was with a small campfire, and they had different powers than me."  
  
 "Who did?" Phil asked.   
  
 Dan squeezed his hand together, trying not to show how tense he was. He’d found out about Mandy's old friends, the other mutants who she'd traveled with before going off on her own. One glance at Jordan confirmed that she knew too.   
  
 "An old friend," Mandy said, waving the question away nervously. "It doesn’t matter."  
  
 It sounded like it mattered, but before Phil could press on, Jordan changed the topic of conversation. "So, what took you two so long? And Dan, why does it look like you made out with an ash tray?"  
  
———  
  
 Dan and Phil went down to the river at the bottom of the other side of the hill, cleaning the ash and soot off of themselves in water that was so deep it went halfway up their chests. Then Dan floated in the water, looking up at the smoke-blocked sky.   
  
 The last time he’d done that, he’d thought of how he and Phil's powers paired them together, making them the equivalent of soulmates. At the time, he’d hated it. He didn’t feel that way anymore.   
  
 Phil was compassionate and loving, and as much as Dan hated to admit it, he was his best friend. Not to mention, their powers complemented each other perfectly, making it so Dan didn’t have to ever worry about freezing Phil-  
  
 He sat up and immediately submerged himself, sinking into the river like a rock. He pushed himself to the surface, spluttering but far more shaken by his realization.   
  
 If he didn’t have his powers, then it meant that he and Phil no longer complimented each other so perfectly. Before, he’d seen them as soulmates.   
  
 Now, the term friends felt degrading.   
   
 "Guys! Come up here, quick!" Jordan called.   
  
 They quickly swam to shore, pulling on their clothes and sprinting up the hill. "What is it?"  
  
 Mandy was sitting on the side on the same spot where she’d been earlier. Now, her eyes were wide as she stared at the forest in disbelief.   
  
 "What happened?" Dan demanded. The fire was out, and a thick black smoke rose from the forest. Fires like that went out much slower, usually at least a few days.   
  
 "We were watching the fire, when it just went out," Jordan explained, her voice steady as it usually was but a bit too fast for comfort. "It didn’t burn out, it was  _put_  out. As if someone put a lid over it."  
  
 Mandy was still staring at the forest in shock, and another emotion Dan wished he didn’t recognize so well. Terror.   
  
 "We have to go." She said quietly.   
  
 "We just made camp. PJ just got back to sleep-"  
  
 "No, we have to go. Now. If they find us..." her eyes widened even more, and Mandy rushed to her feet, taking her bow off of her back and squeezing it in her hands, loading it with an arrow but not raising it nor pulling it back. She ran her fingers along the carved designs, breathing shakily.   
  
 Jordan looked back to the forest, taking a sharp breath. "Tell the others. Let’s go." As Mandy ran off, Jordan looked at their doubtful expressions. "I don’t look inside her mind, I learned not to a long time ago. But right now, what she’s dealing with is real fear. And if the one person in this camp who’s proficient in long-range weaponry and has a purely defensive power is scared, then the rest of us should probably be too."  
  
 So they packed up and started their way down the opposite side of the hill, hoping that whatever was in that forest stayed there.   
  
 But what if it followed them? 

 


	18. But It Wasn't

Dan couldn’t sleep.

He should have been able to. He hadn’t slept the night before because he was too busy helping Phil practice controlling his fire powers, which of course, had gone horribly wrong. They ran from the fires, Dan went back for Phil, they got back to safety and just had enough time to eat and bathe before Mandy freaked and insisted they had to go. Something in the forest had stifled the fire, and whatever it was, it was bad enough to send Mandy, who was able to be both defensive and offensive, with her force fields and archery, into a panic.

They kept going for the rest of the day, then made camp for the night. It was only for six hours, then they were getting up again and continuing to run. It was the perfect time for Dan to get back up to 100%.

But he couldn’t.

Normally, if Dan was this sleep deprived, exhausted, and emotional, his powers would reflect it. He longed for the frost traveling up the sides of the tent, the feel of the cold cover his body like a duvet of chill. No matter how cold it got, it never bothered him.

Finally, he gave up tossing and turning and grabbed his crowbar from where it lay beside him, carefully crawling over Phil and out of the tent.

"I’ll watch," he promised Seth, who nodded and went back to his tent. Dan patrolled the camp, twirling the crowbar around absently. He may not have had control of his powers, but he certainly wasn’t defenseless.

Out of the corner of his eye, there was flicker of purple. Dan slowly crept forwards, his crowbar gripped in one hand. As he came forward, the purple flickered again, over the corner of Mandy and Jordan’s tent.

Dan watched as it disappeared again. A needle fell from a pine tree and bounced off of the force field with such force that it shot into a nearby tree, embedding itself in the bark.

Dan picked up a pinecone from the ground, examining it before tossing it so it would land on the top of the tent. As soon as it made contact it shot into the sky, hurtling back towards the tent and hitting the force field again at an angle, hurtling away from the camp and out of sight.

The tent flap was quickly unzipped, and Mandy appeared from inside in a near panic, a journal and pencil in hand. She tried to conceal her fear but didn’t do a very good job. "What’s wrong?"

Her face was tinted slightly purple from the force field. "Nothing," Dan answered, keeping his voice down. "Do you always sleep with a forcefield on?"

Jordan snored, and they both looked over at her. "Let’s take a walk," Mandy suggested.

She got her shoes on, dropped the force field, and slung her bow over her back. "It’s cold," she noted as they started walking the perimeter of the camp.

"I didn’t notice."

"Yeah? You think your powers might be coming back?"

"It’s none of your business."

She cracked a smile. "There he is. I was wondering when you were going to drop the act."

"What act?"

"All of the niceties. Phil might buy it, but I don’t."

Dan didn’t argue. He adjusted his grip on the crowbar, lightly swinging it as they walked. The dull black metal didn’t reflect much light, yet still gleamed dangerously.

He looked over, only to realize Mandy was watching it too. She glanced up, catching his gaze. "Do you think Phil would think differently if he knew what you’d done?"

"I did what I had to."

"You didn’t have to do anything but run. Dan, you literally bludgeoned four humans to death. I think that’s something Phil would care about."

"Yeah, well, he’s not my keeper."

Mandy snorted. "You should’ve seen him when you collapsed on that river bank. He was a mess."

They turned, keeping an eye on the trees to their left.

"I don’t like trees," Dan announced, changing topics. "I always think somethings hiding in them."

She shrugged. "We’re the ones who are hiding in them tonight."

"From whatever’s chasing us," Dan recalled. "Which you still haven’t told me about." Mandy didn’t respond. "Do you always sleep with the forcefield, or only tonight?"

Mandy bit her lip. "When I was on my own, I couldn’t control my forcefields very well. They usually just popped up whenever I felt threatened, and they never lasted very long. They get stronger over time, and with practice."

"You’re welcome for almost dying," Dan interjected helpfully. "You got lots of practice."

"Yeah. And a few other times, when I had to sleep with the force field on, for... other reasons."

"You mean whatever’s chasing us. It was chasing you?"

"It caught me." Mandy had the perfect poker face. The only thing that gave her away was the slight sniffles. "Don’t tell the others. But... I was part of a camp before this one."

Dan stopped walking, looking at her in disbelief. "Other mutants?" She nodded. "Where are they now? We could find them, gain numbers, figure out a better way-"

"They’re dead," Mandy interrupted. "I’m the only one who made it out." She leaned against a tree, looking up at the sky. The moonlight hit her face perfectly, illuminating the freckles and smudged dirt that covered her skin, the eyebags. She looked exhausted.

Dan noticed a flickering in the sky, a little dart of purple. "You’re trying to make a force field around the camp," he realized.

Mandy nodded grimly. "It’s not working. I can get one up, but only for a few moments. I just wish-" she froze, her mouth wide open as if the breath had been sucked from her throat. Then her hands went up to her neck like she was trying to pry invisible hands off, gasping for a breath that wasn’t there.

"Mandy? Mandy, what’s wrong?"

She collapsed onto her knees, inhaling deeply as the air returned.

"Mandy?"

"We have to go," she coughed, her entire body shaking. A force field appeared around her and disappeared just as quickly. " _Now._ "

——-

It was, perhaps, the third time in the past two days they had thought that they were safe, only to have to pack up and run at a moments notice. But this time, no one, not even PJ, complained.

The tents were down in record time, packs on, and they were running through the foliage. They were no pack of wolves, they were a pack of deer, and they were being hunted.

Seth and Jordan lead the group, the younger inexperienced mutants following right behind them. In the harsh light, they looked taller, stronger, the fear maturing them in seconds. PJ ran at the back of the group with Mandy, Dan and Phil.

"What happened?" He asked, but Dan had no explanation. "Mandy, you have to tell us! We need to know what we’re up against!"

"We just have to get away!" She insisted.

"Is it a monster? A demon?"

They were still running, but all of a sudden it was as if the volume had been turned down. They crashed over the forest floor, snapping twigs and crinkling pine needles, but Dan didn’t hear any of it. All he heard was her voice, soft as it broke halfway through, "No, she’s not a demon. She’s one of us."


	19. But They Didn't Care

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double Update! Make sure you read the other chapter first. This chapter is wonderful. it's a mix of fluff and angst and everything, I adore it. Please let me know what you think! And if anyone is interested in discussing what's happening in the story/what's happening next, leave a comment down below saying so. As much as I love comments, I love discussing/creating theories even more.

"That’s it, we need to stop," PJ announced. They had ran for as long as they could, then slowed to a jog, the adrenaline rush slowing wearing off. Finally, PJ stopped them. "We can take a break. One hour. Then we’ll keep going."

No one objected, not even Mandy. She dropped her bags, announced she was going to find water, and walking off.

Phil dropped his bag by hers, sitting next to it. Dan followed his lead, sitting and stretching out his sore legs.

Phil reached out, touching Dan’s arm lightly. "You feel cold."

"Good riddance. About time my powers come back." He held out his palm, trying to summon a miniature flurry of snow. Nothing appeared.

Phil held out his own hand, and immediately a flame appeared.

Dan grunted. "Showoff." He accidentally elbowed Mandy's pack, causing the notebook from earlier to fall out. He picked it up, turning it over.

He glanced at Phil, who’d closed his fist, suppressing the fire. He was gnawing on his lip, but he didn’t protest as Dan opened it.

"It’s like... a record," he observed, skimming over the first few pages. "Or a journal, or something."

"What does it say?"

Dan shook his head, flipping through the pages and looking for anything that looked worthwhile. His eyes caught on a drawing, and he stopped flipping, looking at it. Phil leaned closer so he could see. The drawing was crudely drawn, but the subject was clear. It was a person, half a familiar looking girl with dark wavy hair, and half a boy with light colored, short hair and a lightly shaded eye. They merged at the center, becoming one person.

Underneath the drawing was writing, a continuation from another page that had apparently been ripped out. It read: "She originally had a fraternal twin, but she absorbed him in the womb. He was also supposed to be a mutant, and she thinks that his power was supposed to the ability to project himself as a holograph. However, since he was absorbed, from time to time her image flickers and melds with his. She says that his influence doesn’t affect her, but-"

That was at the end of the writing. There was no more on the next page, and there wasn’t even a period to end the sentence.

The unmistakable sound of a bowstring being pulled backward made Dan look up.

"Put it back," Mandy commanded. "I don’t know what you just read, but whatever it was, you’d better forget it."

Dan and Phil were frozen in place, something about the drawing and the words, and the surprise of being caught.

Phil carefully took the book from Dan’s hands, not closing it. Mandy followed him with her bow, it ducking a little bit before she forced herself to point the tip at Phil.

"Who was she?" Phil asked, turning the journal around to show Mandy the picture.

"That’s Eli. Now put it back."

"Did she die?" Dan asked. "When your camp-" an arrow embedded itself in the trunk of the tree behind him, hardly an inch from his head and effectively shutting him up.

"That was a warning shot. The next one won’t be."

Phil didn’t close the book or put it down. None of them said anything as Mandy aimed another arrow in the center of Dan’s forehead.

Jordan came up behind her slowly, her eyes scanning the situation. "You read her journal?"

"She’s threatening us!" Dan proclaimed. "Reading her journal is not as bad as threatening to shoot us!"

Jordan stepped forwards and ripped the journal out of Phil’s hand, closing it and pressing it into Mandy's hands. "We don’t have time for this. And Mandy, we can’t keep doing this. You  _have_  to tell us what’s going on, otherwise, we’re going to stop running. I don’t know if you’ve realized, but we’re not defenseless. Whatever it is you’re running from, we could probably take them."

Mandy shook her head, looking a little panicked. Her bow was no longer drawn all the way back and aimed at Dan, but she hadn’t completely released the slack and the loaded arrow happened to be pointed directly at Dan’s foot. "We can’t. Trust me on this. Even if we were all awake when she attacked-" Mandy covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide.

Dan looked over. Phil was scowling. "That’s it. I’m done with this. Mandy, if this is something that could put someone in danger, then we deserve to know. I’m going to go to the bathroom now before we have to keep running. Dan?"

"Yeah, I’m right with you." They both got up, brushing their pants off.

"You’re going to pee... together?"

Normally, Dan would correct them. But he was running on about negative two hours of sleep, and didn’t care. "Yeah, deal with it!"

When they were done with their business, they walked back to camp side by side, not bothering to talk. "I want to sit for a while," Phil decided. "A little away from camp. Maybe... get my emotions out."

"Honestly, that sounds like an innuendo," Dan admitted, slouching beside him. "Want to set something on fire while I take a power nap?"

"Sounds good. Hopefully this time I won’t start a forest fire."

———————

Dan woke up to the sound of footsteps trudging through foliage. "Hey Phil, wake him up, will you? We have to get going."

"Yeah, I got it Peej."

Dan kept his eyes closed, trying not to give away that he was awake. He was the perfect level of warmth- likely Phil’s doing- and was slightly curled up, with his head rested on Phil’s lap. He waited for Phil to say something to wake him.

But he didn’t. Instead, Dan felt a hand in his hair, ruffling the messy curls softly. Then Phil was pushing some of his fringe to the side, humming "Dan? We have to get going now."

Dan didn’t want to move. He just wanted to sleep- preferably while Phil continued petting him. He scrunched up his face before he could stop himself, and heard Phil giggle above him.

"What, doesn’t more walking sound fun?"

"I’m going to chop my legs off," Dan decided, "so then I won’t have to do any more walking. Ever again."

"Well you’ll have to wait, because we have to get going now. If you plan on mutilating yourself, you’ll have to wait until later."

"Oh darn." Dan opened his eyes, plucking a blade of grass and playing with it, pulling off little strands from it. Phil’s hand was still on his head, but he wasn’t moving it anymore, almost as if trying to keep Dan from noticing it was there. They were living in an extended inhale, a lengthened moment. "Do we have to go?" Dan pleaded, almost too quietly for Phil to hear because, in truth, he didn’t want him to hear. He was the Ice King; Frosty The Snow Tyrant; he was not supposed to whine.

Phil hesitated, before relenting. "Come on, let’s get up. Before they send out a search party and find us like this."

"Ooh, that'd be bad," Dan agreed. "Especially considering all of the horrible, dirty things we’re doing. Me, sleeping. You... burning things? Did you end up burning anything?"

"Just your hair," he teased. "And that tree over there."

Dan glanced over, seeing a small tree with blackened bark. "Nice. Did you manage to put it out for once?"

"Nah, it burnt out itself. The area around it is muddy, not good for setting on fire. Let’s get up?"

They managed to disentangle themselves and walk back to camp, which, even though it was only a few meters, felt too far away.  _Only a hundred more of those to go_ , Dan thought grimly,  _then I can sleep and do it all again tomorrow._

It was daytime at that point, but the sky was covered in cloud that turned down the brightness and generally desaturated everything.

After they’d been walking for a little while, Mandy announced that she would tell them some things. So PJ, Jordan, Dan, and Phil walked alongside her in the back the pack, and listened as she explained what was going on in a little more detail, yet still oversimplified. It ended up leaving them with more questions than answers.

"I used to belong to another camp of mutants like this. Pretty similar actually, but a bit bigger, and we also had weapons and horses. And everyone used their powers. But that’s not the point. I had a... special friend. Who wasn’t who I thought they were. Basically, they were hiding things, and once I found out, I stopped... being around them. A few nights later, they used their powers to... kill the others. But I survived, and... got away. Eventually. I was the only one."

She shouldered her bag, refusing to look at the others. Her words felt edited and unfinished, but she didn’t open her mouth to speak more.

"And that’s who’s chasing us," Phil clarified. "Why?"

"Why’d they kill the other camp of mutants? People do bad things when they... when things get messy. I don’t know what’s happened since then, but... we’re not safe."

After that, she refused to talk anymore. Jordan and PJ went up to the front of the group to lead the way, and the others stayed behind.

Slowly, Dan and Phil fell back, letting Mandy have her space. And when Dan reached out his hand, Phil clasped it automatically.

———-

The city was like so many of the others. Except this one was empty.

A sign on the gates read 'A drought forced our citizens to relocate. We will travel north until we find adequate housing.' The sign was weathered with age.

Jordan kicked at the gates, but they didn’t open, so PJ came forwards and pressed his palms against it, closing his eyes for a moment before the entire door dissolved into dust.

They stayed close together as they walked, everyone on full alert. Mandy had her bow loaded, and both Phil and PJ had their hands practically twitching by their sides, ready to raise them and release their powers at any moment.

No one threatened them. There were no signs of life, besides the houses and buildings that crowded the streets, all empty. Some had collapsed in on themselves. Worst of all, long troughs could be seen all around, rectangular structures with low stone walls, less than a foot deep each. And every single one was filled almost halfway with water.

They stayed together as a group, breaking into a few houses for supplies, though it was hardly breaking in. Every door was open. Many houses were still fully furnished, with beds and blankets and half-full trunks and primitive-looking outhouses and a small backyard kitchen area for cooking. They found some supplies that they needed, though there was little food. They found some, however, and it’d be enough. Besides, food wasn’t their biggest issue at the moment.

Dan kept tripping. He saw the cobblestone walkway but was too tired to lift his feet up high enough to get over them. The others weren’t much better, all yawning, even the ones that were supposed to be on duty. They ended up settling down in a cluster of three abandoned homes with no plans for the morning.

They probably should have split up into more homes, but they didn’t want to spread out too thin.

Phil and Dan ended up in the smallest house with Mandy, since her pacing wouldn’t disturb them. There was only one room, with only two beds, but they were all too tired to care. Phil climbed in one, and Dan followed him without questioning it. He curled up beside Phil, falling asleep instantly. Phil followed his lead.

And Mandy lay with her eyes open, trying desperately to stay awake. She’d knew what they were dealing with, and knew that if she fell asleep, she just might not wake up.


	20. But They Had To Stay

**Hour 5**

Dan hefted the bucket onto his shoulder, sweating as he carefully poured it out into the cauldron. A fire burned underneath it, and once this water was boiled and distributed he’d have restocked the entire camps water supplies.

* * *

 

 A few meters away, PJ stirred a similar pot, only the water also had clothes mixed in. They didn’t get to fully wash their clothes often, usually just rinsing and wiping them off. Once they had soaked in the hot water for long enough, they’d be hung up to dry and everyone would go and collect their respective clothing. The downside was that that meant they had to stay in the city for at least the rest of the day. The decision had been made without speaking it, but no one objected. They were tired, and sleeping in real beds had made going back to tent lives all the less attractive. They would let Mandy’s old friend come to them.

 That morning Mandy had gotten up early, but the two boys stayed in bed as long as they could, just laying together, not even pretending to be asleep.

 "Mandy doesn’t know the extent of your powers," Dan said, not looking at Phil. "She thinks we’re defenseless just because most of us don’t show off our powers. We'll be able to handle whatever comes just fine."

 "I’m sure you’re right."

 So they spent the day getting their things together, refreshing their supplies and mentally preparing for what would happen the following day. They didn’t know the powers or even the identity of what was chasing them, they only knew what Mandy had told them, but that was still hardly enough to go by. They estimated that they could have the morning to gather themselves, then by mid-afternoon be packing up.

 Dan found himself yawning as he worked. As much as they’d wanted this to be a break, it seemed more and more like they would not be getting much rest.

 At one point, after the water had come to a boil, Phil came over. "Hey. Almost done?"

 "I think so," Dan replied, his hands in his pockets. "I don’t think the water's hot enough yet."

 Phil hummed, coming closer. He put a hand on the rim of the cauldron and stuck his other hand in, dipping a finger in the boiling water like it was nothing. "Yeah, it needs a little more time. How about you back up, give it some room?"

 Dan cracked a small smile, playing along and backing up. Phil went around the large pot and leaned against it casually, careful not to tip it.

 Underneath the pot, the fire burned a little brighter. "So... how're you liking city life?"

 Dan snorted. It was technically a city, but not in the way the word used to mean. When Dan was young, a city meant huge skyscrapers, buses and crowded streets and all sorts of official business people. This was hardly a city. It had streets, but they were all stone, most of which were too narrow for a car to fit through. Small houses, little connection to the outside world, not to mention that one of the main aspects of a city was always that they were crowded. This city was empty.

 Dan rocked a little. "I like it. I forgot what sleeping in a real bed felt like."

 Phil cocked a smile, looking at his feet. "Yeah, I know what you-" he leaned back too far against the pot and before Dan could warn him, it tipped over. The entire pot of boiling water knocked backward and poured out, with Phil falling right on top of it, the water hitting him full force. If it was anyone else, it would’ve been deadly. But with Phil, it was just funny.

 "Phil!" Dan tried to be serious but he couldn’t hide his giggles. "You klutz!"

 Phil was laughing too. He laid down, his chest shaking with laughter. "Don’t worry, I’m fine."

 Dan offered him a hand, and Phil yanked him forwards. His hand la fed in a puddle of the water, and he quickly pulled it out, wiping it off as the stinging subsided. "Hey, watch it. Not everyone’s is as resistant as you." He was practically laying on Phil’s chest, smiling far more fondly than he had cause to.

 A crash was heard on the other side of the house, where the street was. It was followed by a quiet yelp.

 Phil rolled his eyes. "Guess we should go help whatever that was?"

 Dan nodded. "It was probably just Mandy. She’s even more sleep deprived than I am right now, and that’s saying something. But yeah, let’s go."

 The got up and walked around the house, with Phil a little in front. As soon as he rounded the corner he froze, shuffling back.

 "What it is?" Dan squeezed past him, peering around the corner. All of the fun, the easy energy, was immediately gone as his blood ran cold.

 Two figures stood by the abode on the other side of the street, talking in hushed voices. A pale of water lay on the ground, knocked over.

 The first figure was a girl with wavy brown hair. Dan couldn’t see her face, but she stood over the other figure, hands on either side of their head, trapping them against the wall. And the other figure...

 Dan couldn’t see their face but could see their combat boots, their stained jeans. Mandy kept adjusting her feet, trying to find a good stance as the other girl kept her trapped against the wall.

 They talked in quiet tones, but after a moment stopped. Then the girl turned, pulling Mandy's back against her chest and pressing the knife tighter against her neck.

 “I see you found more friends,” she purred. She had terracotta skin, all besides a few perfectly square patches that flickered pale. A square flickered over her left eye and for a moment the deep brown turned blue, with shorter lashes.

 It was the girl from the journal: Eli. The one who absorbed her twin in the womb and got the flickering remnants of his holographic powers. This was who they'd been running from, who’d stolen Mandy’s sleep again syndrome

 And she was holding a knife against

 “Let her go,” Dan stepped forwards, trying to sound more confident than he actually was.

 This seemed to amuse her. “Or what?”

 “Or I’ll have to use my powers on you. And I can promise you, you will not survive them.”

 She kept smirking and looked down at her captive. Mandy looked calm at first, until you looked at how her chest rose and fell with each labored breath, the way her eyes were half closed yet still flickered around in fear. Eli brushed aside a piece of hair that had fallen out of Mandy’s bun, her fingers drifted across her cheek before tucking the hair behind her ear. “What do you think?” she hummed. “Should he show me his powers? Maybe I'll show him mine then, how does that sound?”

 Mandy remained poker-faced, but Eli nodded, taking it as an answer. “And you,” she nodded to Phil, “what about you? Do you want to show me your power too?”

 “I don't want to hurt you,” Phil stated darkly, stepping forwards to stand in line with Dan. “Just drop her. Otherwise, you'll regret it.”

 “I'm sure I will,” Eli said playfully. As her image flickered, Dan was able to make out another person's features: white spiked hair, striking pale blue eyes, a strong jawline. The squares flickered into existence like a glitchy computer program, then disappeared just as quickly.

 She dug the knife a little deeper into Mandy’s neck, eliciting a small gasp from the smaller girl. “I wanted to see if it was real. I’ll wait until the right time to finish the job. I told you… you can't hide.”

 Phil raised his hands, surrounding himself in a ring of fire. “I told  _you_  to let her go,” he reminded as he sent the fire snaking towards her. “So what’ll it be?”

 When Phil wanted to, he could be decently scary. Even Dan found himself wanting to take a step back, and he  _knew_ Phil. But when he looked at Mandy, she looked even more afraid than before.

 Eli grinned, half of her mouth flickering with lighter hues. “Did you hear that Mand’? He wants to see my powers.”

 Mandy couldn't move her head without getting cut, but she still managed to find Phil with her eyes, staring at him like she was trying to capture his image in her mind.

 The fire grew, snaking over to them as it crackled with agonizing heat. Phil was powerful, so powerful. He may have been the most powerful mutant Dan had ever met.

 Then the air pressure dropped all at once, like they were being submerged in water. Almost as if an invisible hand had closed over his throat, Dan found himself completely devoid of any air at all. Beside him, Phil fell to his knees, also desperate for a breath that wasn't there. The only remnant of the fire was the smoke that curled towards the sky.

 Dan crumpled to the ground, as if there'd be air there. They wasn't. He was suffocating, panic welling up his throat and every noise gone, replaced with a low hum.

 Then the air was back, and he was gasping for air on his knees. The others did the same, all except Eli, who appeared unaffected.

 “Reminds you of the good old days, doesn't it?” She released Mandy, who collapsed to the ground, coughing painfully. She stepped around her, taking her time walking over to Dan, who was still on the ground. “I bet you're glad you used your powers on me, hmm? I'm real scared.”

 Dan didn't respond. He looked away, still breathing heavily.

 He stayed staring at the ground until she had walked the rest of the way down the road and was out of sight.

 “What'd she do?” PJ asked frantically, emerging from behind a building. “Was it mind control? Did she hurt you?”

 “Mama PJ,” Dan muttered, getting to his feet. “Never thought I'd see that side of you.”

 “You saw?” Phil clarified, his arms crossed in front of him. “Why didn't you try it help?”

 PJ shuffled a little awkwardly, crossing his own arms. “She was letting you off easy.”

 “That was not easy,” Dan argued.

 “We wouldn’t have been much help. She wasn’t looking to fight, just send Mandy her message.”

 “As if I didn't already know.” Mandy looked a little worse for wear, her eye bags seeming darker, her bun messier.

 “What was the message?”

 “That she's going to kill me,” she explained, as if it wasn't a big deal. “Which I already knew.”

 “But why?”

 Mandy shrugged. “I don't completely know. She doesn't like other mutants.”

 “But what did she do? What even is her power?” Jordan came up behind Mandy, placing a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

 Mandy didn't answer. But she didn't have to.

 “It's air,” Dan explained. “She stole the air from our lungs so that none of us were able to breathe. That's how she killed the other mutants, at your old camp. They suffocated.”

 Mandy winced at the reminder. It was only then that Dan realized that it may not have been the nicest thing to say at that moment.

 “And she's going to kill you,” Phil added, sending Mandy a worried glance. “Which she wanted you to know.”

 “She's not going to just kill me. She's going to kill all of us.”

 The words hung in the air like smoke, leaving behind a bitter taste. “She's going to try,” PJ corrected. “But we won't let her.”

 “We can fight,” Jordan agreed.

 Dan snorted. “Who? Phil’s powers are useless if there's no oxygen, my powers still haven't come back, and I still don't even fully understand what your powers are.”

 “I have a few tricks up my sleeve,” Jordan said, pulling her sleeves down a bit. “And PJ can turn her into a pile of glitter.”

 It was PJ’s turn to wince. “Not quite. Living things… I can transform them, but not easily. I'm pretty good at trees, especially old ones, because they want to change. Forests need fires. But people… I can't transform them without likely combusting myself. I just don't have enough power.”

 Dan pulled out his crowbar, spinning it around a few times in his fingers and then swinging it over his head, embedding it in a wooden door with a loud noise that made the others wince. He let go, and it stuck. “If I had my powers, she'd already be dead.”

 “Killing isn't always the best option.”

 “Well maybe it is now!” Dan yanked the crowbar out, hefting it like a club. “She's going to kill us, or at least try to. And I do not intend to die in the next week, and none of you are allowed to either.”

 “You don't tell me what to do,” Jordan argued.

 “Shut up.”

 “What’s happening?” A new voice asked worriedly, belonging to none other than Angie, the little girl with the blonde hair and ability to crystallize things.

 No one offered an explanation. PJ looked to the others, then let out a small sigh. “We’re going to have a group meeting. Like a council meeting… but with everyone.”

\---------

**Hour 7**

 There wasn't enough water for everyone. The pot that had been knocked over had never been replaced. It didn't matter much, but Dan couldn't help but feel like it was a big failure on his part. He couldn't use his powers, he couldn't defeat Eli, and he couldn't even boil water right.

 The group meeting consisted of the small cluster of mutants in their group sitting in a circle on the floor of one of the houses. One by one, they showed their powers.

 “I have the ability to read minds… sometimes,” Jordan explained. “Sometimes I can sense things, like emotions. Other times I can access actual memories, the ones at the front of the mind, the ones people play over and over. But I can't forget a memory once I've seen it.” She then explained that the only way to get rid of a memory was to give it to someone else. That didn’t always work very well: apparently, people couldn't always handle them.

 Next was Seth, who signed that he could read and write any language fluently. It was an amazing power; it just wasn't very useful in this situation.

 Beside him was Nora, the little Asian girl who explained quietly that she could see into people's bodies and find illness and injuries. She'd also been watching Eli in secret, and claimed that her heart was black.

 At this, Jordan and Phil exchanged a glance.

 Then came Mandy, with her force-fields; PJ, with his creative disintegration; and Troy, with his minor plant powers. He'd been getting better at controlling them with Dan’s help, but still couldn't do that much.

 After him was Phil, who’d always tried to hide his powers from the others. “I have temperature-based powers, on the warm side of the spectrum,” he explained. “I can create fire, I can withstand extreme heat and cold, and I was chased out of my hometown by a mob after I unintentionally incinerated one of the mines. They chased me into the woods, and somewhere along the way… it was lit on fire. They all died, and that's when you found me.”

 It was silent for a few moments as everyone processed this. Phil sent Dan a pleading look, and he cleared his throat, beginning in hopes of taking the attention off of Phil. “I also have temperature based powers, but on the cold side of the spectrum. Ice and snow and all that shit, and I can- I _could_ \- freeze entire cities at will.

 Next was Angie, with her crystallization powers, and a spattering of younger mutants that Dan realized he never even knew the names of. They're powers ranged from finding precious metals to being able to jump four meters straight up, which was actually pretty cool, but it wouldn't matter very much if they all suffocated to death the next time they went to sleep. And Mandy assured them, that was Eli’s plan. That's what happened with the last camp.

 Then there was Emma, a small girl Dan’s age with a honey-colored bob and glasses. She and Seth were dating, apparently, and she was the sixth member of the council, and met Jordan and PJ in the woods one day, and the three of them decided to travel together to find others of their kind and get away from the oppression of home. Emma could create and control tar, a dark gooey substance like molasses. She said that she'd been anti-vax when everything was going wrong and refused to get the vaccine that ended up killing off most other mutants. Five months later, she'd been found out when her boyfriend at the time surprised her one morning and found gooey black tar dripping down her bedroom walls.

 And that was it. Their camp consisted of rejects, children, people with powers so weak they were only really relevant when it came to gardening, or reading ancient texts. The two most powerful appeared to be PJ and Phil, but even then PJ couldn't use his powers on people and Phil’s fires couldn't burn if Eli took all of the air away.

 PJ nodded when they were all done. “Okay. Okay.” He looked to Jordan, his friend for years, and they seemed to have a silent conversation. “We have to split up. Seth, I want you to take some of the others with non-aggressive powers and keep traveling. Go East.”

  _And do what?_  Seth signed, looking a little angry but containing it.

 “I want you to find a city that doesn't have an aggressive stance against mutants, and assimilate into it. You will not share your powers with them, but go about life as humans.”

 Seth started signing rapidly, and PJ responded just as rapid in sign language, too fast for Dan to catch it all. He only caught one part:  _Don’t be stupid._

 “Emma, do you want to go with him?”

 She hesitated, looking at Seth, her longtime boyfriend, and making a decision. “No. My powers can be used offensively. I need to stay and help.”

 PJ nodded, looking in pain. “Okay. Dan, Phil, Mandy, Emma and I will stay. And Jordan-”

 “I'm staying,” she said decisively. “And I'm fighting.”

 “Is there anything I can say to convince-”

 “No.”

 “Fine. And… and Jordan. We’ll stay here, and when Eli comes back, we’ll be ready to fight. And the rest of you… I suppose this is where we say our goodbyes.”


	21. But They Weren't Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That whole 'graphic depictions of violence' thing at the beginning? Yeah, that’s a real thing in this book. TW.

**Hour 8**

 The goodbyes were hard, even for Dan. He smiled at the younger mutants, reminding them to keep practicing their powers. They were mostly all teens or preteens, and all of them had been forced to mature far too quickly, but under the weight of the situation those shells seemed to crack, revealing genuinely sad kids who didn't deserve this.

* * *

 Then Dan said goodbye to Seth. He wrapped his arms around him and squeezed, muttering “Take care of them.” Seth nodded, the easiest form of sign language there was.

 Dan and Phil stood by as the others finished their goodbyes. Emma and Seth clutched each other. “Find a safe place, and once we finish this I’ll find you.”

 Then the six of them watched as the others left. Mandy shoved her hands in in her coat pocket. “Jeez Dan, you're like standing by a freezer,” she commented, trying to lighten the mood.

* * *

**Hour 14**

 The waiting was torture.

 They sat around a fire, so close their legs touched. Every once in a while, Phil would make the fire grow and let it burn down, or Mandy would make a force field appear around them. The fire kept on burning despite the field. According to Mandy, the point of the fields were to keep whoever was inside it safe, like they were in a little bubble. You could not die inside the force field. The catch was that it was directly tied to Mandy’s strength, and eventually, she would collapse from overexertion and the energy field would collapse.

 The sun had set early, as it had been doing for a few weeks, maybe months. There was no time, just the rising sun and the setting sun and lots and lots of walking. Day after day, city after city. Fields and forests and hills and dirt, all equally unabiding and unforgiving.

 Dan had his crowbar by his side, and Mandy had her bow across her lap, the sheath of arrows over her shoulder. The others had found various makeshift weapons, with PJ wielding a crudely cut walking stick and Johanna holding a small length of rope. Phil and Emma had both refused a weapon.

* * *

**Hour 18**

 They all did their best to stay awake. Mandy claimed Eli would strike when she thought their guards were down, but that didn't make the staying awake any more comfortable.

 They lay on the ground, looking up at the stars. “Hey Mandy?” Phil asked quietly.

 “Hmm?”

 “Is she named Eli because it's a gender-neutral name, and she's kind of both genders?”

 “She's definitely a girl, trust me on that. But you’re probably right. The thing with the flickering skin… it's her brother's image. And it only happens when she's agitated. Back in camp, it almost never happened. Not until the very end.”

 Dan closed his eyes. He remembered back to his extended sleep/coma, where some of Mandy’s memories were shared with him as she kept him in suspended animation. He remembered the girl with the warm skin and dark, wavy hair, smiling lovingly and stirring a mug of something without touching the spoon.

 PJ began to snore.

* * *

**Hour 20**

 The fire went out in the pit.

 Dan and Phil sat up slowly, looking around. Dan kicked PJ gently, muttering a hushed “Get up.”

 Mandy loaded her bow, aiming it down the street. Nothing moved.

 Hesitantly, Phil lit the fire again. It burned for a moment before going out.

 They slowly got up into a crouching position, getting their weapons ready.

 A breeze floated by, getting progressively stronger and pushing Dan’s fringe up away from his face. The wind seemed to hiss.

 A figure appeared, walking towards them at a mild pace. Mandy aimed her arrow at it, drawing the bowstring back further. As soon as the figure came close enough that they could see her hair, she released the arrow.

 It sailed towards the figure, and at the last moment the figure flickered and glitched to the side, continuing to walk forwards. The arrow sailed past.

 Mandy was just notching another arrow when Jordan called out “Wait, it’s a-”

 “Ahhh!” Phil screamed, and Dan turned around just in time to see Eli pull the knife out from his arm, wiping it on his shirt.

 The arrow flew, and Eli glitched out of the way, dodging it like it was nothing. The ground around her feet turned to tar and started traveling up her legs, but she made wind form and blew it backward. Phil was laying next to Dan, panting, and bleeding, mostly bleeding.

 Before he knew what he was doing, Dan was on his feet, swinging the crowbar directly at her head. Somehow, she caught it on her knife, stepping in to gain leverage. “Are you going to show me your power now? I'm waiting.”

 Dan kicked at her leg and she stumbled back, their weapons falling away from each other. A rope found itself around her neck and was yanked closed, but Eli slammed her elbow into Johanna’s stomach with so much force she let go. Eli slashed with her knife and a cut appeared on Johanna’s forehead, almost immediately beginning to drip blood.

 Another arrow flew and Eli glitched to its side again, her body rippling like a faulty video game, the pixels that made up her skin turning pale before going back to their normal color. Her whole body flickered, her brother’s powers her own.

 They were on their feet, or kneeling, fighting against her five on one and  _they were loosing_. And she wasn't even using her powers yet.

 Jordan tried to send a kick to her ribs, but Eli caught her foot. She yanked her forwards and twisted, flipping Jordan 180 degrees where she landed on the ground with a pained gasp. PJ swung his branch at her, but Eli intercepted with her forearm midswing. The branch broke in half and Eli knocked PJ to the ground, hitting in on the head with the butt of her knife. She stood up straight and was immediately tackled by a blur of brown hair and stained jeans. Mandy pinned her hand with the knife on it to the ground, trying to impale her in the neck with an arrow but Eli shoved her to the side before she could. They rolled on the ground until Eli managed to pin her.

 “How do we always end up here?” She threw her knife slightly to the side and slowly forced the arrow from the other girl’s grip, placing it against her sternum. “Don't take one step forward, or I'll kill her,” she ordered.

 The five of them were left standing, watching as Eli smiled, lightly scratching Mandy with the point of her own arrow. Eli looked back at them and smiled. “Time to use your power,” she mocked, looking at Dan. “Oh wait. I don't think you have one.”

 She began to sink into the ground, the stones beneath her turning to tar. Mandy screamed as the arrow was stabbed into her thigh and yanked out, held back to her throat slick with her own blood.

 “Stop it with the tar. Don't think you can fool me.”

 They were frozen, stuck in a standstill. No one spoke, no one made a move. Mandy sobbed as her jeans became stained with blood, her eyes red and wet with tears.

 “Shh… stop crying. No, shh…”

 Mandy managed to halt her sobs, though her body still shook. She glared up at Eli through glassy eyes full of pure hatred. They made eye contact. And then the arrow in her hand turned to red white and blue confetti and for a single moment, all hell broke loose.

 Jordan grabbed Eli and slammed her against one of the stone houses with so much force it made a horrible cracking noise. Eli sent out a huge wave of wind that knocked everybody else off of their feet except for Jordan, who stood firm. She punched her, over and over, until her nose looked more than just broken and was spilling blood down the sides of her face and over her lips. Eli shoved her backward, and Mandy grabbed Jordan right as the air pressure dropped and they were without breath. They ran to the others and slid beside them, almost collapsing as a force field formed around all six of them and they could breathe once more.

 Eli screamed, attacking the force field with her fists and throwing things at it, howling in rage. Her entire image flickered, and for a moment, Dan could almost make out the full face of a very sickly looking, very angry boy. The pixels that seemed to make up her form flickered and danced with fury as if they were not quite sure which image, which twin, to show.

 Inside the force field, Jordan and Mandy panted for breath. Their small group was huddled together, taking up as little space as possible, all bleeding and bruised.

 Mandy called out in pain, the bleeding in her thigh slowed, but the agony still there. She would not die in the force field. But if she ran out of strength, the force field would fall, and they would die.

 Eli seemed to know this. Her rage subsided as quickly as it had started, and she brushed some hair from her face, sneering. “Fine. You won't last long anyway.”


	22. But She Knew What She Had To Do

**Hour 21**

 The last time Mandy had been forced to use her powers to keep someone alive, she was well fed, hydrated, and had enough rest. She'd had a warm up and when it came time to it, she was able to protect one person for a few hours. And still Dan almost died, and she almost died.

 

* * *

 

 

 And now, she had to keep herself and five others alive, with little food and hydration, when she hadn't slept in days. After she just finished fighting. And was bleeding from a potentially fatal injury.

 PJ went to work right away on her wound, but he didn't have much to use. They didn't have their packs or supplies, just the clothes off their backs and each other. Dan had his crowbar, but he doubted that would do much in the way of healing, and they had one of Mandy’s arrows that had been snapped in two in the fighting. They didn't ever have her bow.

 Still, PJ managed. He used the arrowhead to cut away at some of Mandy’s jeans, using the fabric to tie around the injury, applying pressure and covering the wound. Emma tried to help Johanna, examining the wound on her forehead that was still sticky with blood.

 And Dan sat, and shook. He sat on his butt with his knees curled to his chest and shook. It was only when he heard a shaky breath that he remembered Phil.

 Dan crawled to where Phil was, laying on the ground. His shirt seemed soaked with blood from the knife wound on his arm. “Dammit Phil, I think she hit something serious. You're bleeding a lot.”

 Phil looked up at him. He looked utterly exhausted. “I know, Dan. I know.”

 So Dan cut off the hood of his jacket and tore the fabric, wrapping it around Phil’s injury. It didn't matter. He wouldn't die until the force field fell, and even then he’d probably suffocate before he could bleed out.

 Outside the tent, Eli sat down and got settled in as well. She’d found some sort of cloth or rag that she held to her broken nose, tilting her head back. Her bloodstained features flickered back and forth.

 Dan intertwined his hand with Phil, a subtle enough action that he could do it without drawing any attention. He mouthed something, maybe  _I'm sorry_ , maybe something else entirely- in truth, Dan himself didn't know. And then he let go and crawled away.

 “I can't do this,” Mandy was whispered, her eyes unblinking. “I can't keep the force field up and block my thoughts at the same time. I can't have all of you access my memories, but if I don't let you, I'll run out of energy too quickly.”

 Dan bit his lip. “Maybe you could just give them to me?”

 She looked at him uncertainly. “Are you sure you want that?”

 “I think I need it, actually. I want to be anywhere but here.”

 She didn't say anything, or even nod, but her gaze showed understanding. “I'm going to go into a state of meditation. If you… if you hold my hand, you might get the most of the memories. I’m not sure. I haven’t exactly done this before.”

 Dan nodded in understanding, and reached for her hand.

 He blinked, and when he opened his eyes he was somewhere completely different.

 He was laying in a field full of grass and white dandelion heads. The sun felt warm on his skin, and he turned over, smiling at the girl next to him. Her dark hair was fanned out on the grass, and her smile was blinding. A single square pixel on her hair flicked, turning white for a moment.

 “What was…?”

 Eli sighed wistfully. “It's time I told you about my brother.”

 The scene changed. Dan wasn't sure how he could tell, but it was an earlier memory. He was running, too fast to be running for any other reason than he was being chased, running for his life. Combat boots pounded against the ground underfoot.

 “They're right around the corner!” A new voice appeared, and Dan whipped his head to the side, finding a girl leap off a cart beside him, running next to him. “We have to get out!”

 “What are you?”

 “I'm a mutant. Just like you.”

 The scene flickered just like present-day Eli’s skin. There was a brief image of horses with saddlebags draped off their sides and the unmistakable feeling of holding someone's hand. Then it changed again.

 He was laying in a small structure, his head rested on someone's stomach. “...I always thought I was alone,” he heard himself say, but it wasn't his voice, it was Mandy’s.

 “You're not alone anymore. I promise.”

 They were sitting on a horse, Eli’s arms wrapped around his torso, and she rested her head on her shoulder.

 “I'm scared.” They were in the structure again, only this time, inside a sleeping bag. A large sleeping bag. Dan could feel the fabric against his bare skin, and the feelings of another person's soft hands on his back. “I've been having these thoughts…”

 “You don’t have to be afraid. Eli… I love you.”

 A pause. Then, her voice more sure, “I love you too.”

 A man stood in front of a group of a dozen, maybe more people. “...we still aren't sure what happened. Eli, you were the last one with him. Do you hear any screams, or notice any predators in the area?”

 “No. I have no idea what happened to him.”

 Dan looked at Eli as she said the words. They were holding hands, and he had a bow slung across his back. As she lied, pixels glitched across her body, revealing pale skin and hair.

 A boy with a bluebird on his finger, whistling to him like it had something to say. A girl with a healing touch, holding her hands over a small cut on her leg, and when she pulled her hand away, the cut had already scarred over. Another boy who sunk to his knees and morphed into a golden retriever. And Eli. Lots and lots of Eli. Her smile, her laugh, her hand, gripping his. She held a mug of coffee and stirred it without touching the spoon.

 They lay in a grassy field full of white dandelion heads, and her image flickered for the first time. And Dan was afraid.

 He woke up with his own hands around his throat, struggling for air. He crawled out of the structure, hoping it was just the stale air, but the outside brought no relief. A familiar figure stood outside, her back to him.

 She turned at the noise, and offered one of those smiles. Then he could breathe again.

 “What's happening?” he gasped.

 “Shh… shh… don't worry. It's all going to be over soon.”

 “Why are you doing this?”

 She tsked. “We weren't meant to exist. After this camp is gone, there will be no other mutants left. Besides me, of course. Now, just relax…” the air began to slowly grow thinner. At the last moment, a shaky force field formed, and Dan breathed in deeply. “Don't do this,” Eli snarled. “Just let it happen.”

 “I'm not going to let you kill me.” Mandy’s voice was strong, but Dan definitely didn't _feel_  strong. He could feel what Mandy had felt, the tugging sensation of keeping the energy field up. She wasn't strong, her powers weren't advanced.

 “Fine. Then I'll wait. You can only keep it up for so long.”

 Mandy began to quietly cry, which only made the force field weaker. Noticing this, Eli began to go into the other structures and pull out the other mutants, all dead.

 “Just give up. Come on, just give up.”

 The scene changed. Dan stood in a forest, a familiar feeling bow and sheath of arrows slung across his back. And he was completely alone.

 Mandy- the real Mandy- began to sob. Dan opened his eyes and was faced with the harsh reality. Trapped in a force field again, with Eli waiting outside. She was tilting her head back, her nose still bleeding.

 Dan squeezed her hand. He wished he knew how to do that thing, the thing where he could comfort someone, the nice thing. But he didn't.

 “How did you escape?” He asked quietly.

 “No. No, I… I can't remember that. I can't. I've forgotten.”

 “No, you haven't.” Dan’s voice came out sterner than he'd intended, but he embraced it. “We’re going to escape. But we have to come up with a plan.”

 Mandy shook her head, her eyes closed. “I can't remember.”

 “You do. And you will.”

 He closed his eyes and was immediately sucked back into the memory.

 It was a few hours after when Dan had seen the memory previously. Now, he was standing, his arms crossed.

 Eli stood in front of him. He tried not to look behind her at the bodies.

 “You're not going to make it.”

 “I know,” Dan answered simply. “You've reminded me enough.”

 “Only a few minutes now.”

 Dan could feel the pull of supporting the force field, tying his organs in knots and making his muscles shake with exertion.

 Eli’s image shuddered. “I'm getting tired of waiting.” Her voice had gone deeper, almost… masculine.

 Dan’s breath quickened. He could feel his thoughts, he knew what he was doing. He took a step forward and stumbled, tripping and landing on his knees. His sheath tipped over, a dozen arrows falling onto the ground. He scrambled trying to pick them up, slinging them into his sheath.

 Eli walked forwards, pressing her hands against the force field. A shudder went down his spine, and he could actually feel the skin of her hands. “Just give in,” she murmured. “It’ll be easier. It's going to happen anyway, this way you won't have to hurt so much.”

 Dan slowly rose to his feet. All of the arrows had been picked up, and all but one had been put away, the one remaining still in Dan’s hand, indecisively.

 He stepped up to the border of the force field and leaned his forehead against it. Eli did it too, and for a moment it was almost as if things were normal again.

 Not that they'd ever been normal.

 Then the force field disappeared and he plunged the arrow into her stomach.

 The memory skipped ahead a few moments and Dan felt himself walking away, going as fast as he shaking legs would take him.

 “I'm going to find you!” Eli called out, her voice hoarse. He didn't look back, but knew that if he did her entire image would be shuddering. “You can't hide!”

 Dan turned around and loaded an arrow in the bow, yanking it back and stepping back towards her, aiming the arrow at her head.

 She smiled. “Do it. I dare you.”

 Dan could feel the air getting thinner. Before she could regain enough power to drop the air pressure completely, Dan turned around and left. He never let the arrow fly.

 He opened his eyes, letting go of Mandy’s hand. She wasn't crying anymore, just staring off into space, thinking. She sniffled lightly. “I know what I have to do.”


	23. But His Character Could Be Changed

**Hour 23**

 Mandy and Jordan discussed the plan, and then Jordan dropped the information into the other’s minds, letting them know what each of them had to do while keeping it a secret from Eli.

 They were all in bad shape from the fight. Dan wasn't sure what the time was but guessed it was around four in the morning. It'd been dark for so long he'd almost forgotten what the day felt like.

 They stood. Battered and bloody and bruised, but they stood. Dan walked over to Phil, brushing against his hand casually. They made eye contact, then quickly looked away.

 Next to them, Emma raised her hand up to hip level, opening her palm. For a few moment, nothing happened. Then some of the pavement began bubbling, turning to sludge.

 She gasped pitchily, dropping her hand. “The force field stifles my powers,” she mumbled. “Mandy, drop it.”

 Outside of their little bubble, Eli stood, leaning against the empty stone house. She shined her knife on her pants, cleaning it off.

 Dan didn’t know what the others had been told, or what the plan was in full. All he knew was what he’d been told: as soon as you can, run.

 Mandy shifted uncomfortably, trying to get the weight off of her thigh. It had stopped bleeding due to the forcefield, but as soon as it was dropped it’d begin again.

 She looked at them, each other them, one last time. Then the forcefield dropped.

 Before Dan could blink Eli was on her, tackling her to the ground with her hands around Mandy’s throat. He lifted his crowbar up to swing but before he could PJ was on her, tearing her off and throwing her back into the rapidly expanding puddle of melted tar. Eli screamed shrilly, pulling herself through the stuff and barreling towards Mandy, knife poised to strike. Jordan stepped in front of her, which would have worked- if she’d been going towards Mandy.

 Instead, she went slightly to the left and grabbed Emma around the neck, slicing across her throat. PJ shoved her back as Emma fell to the ground and a force field appeared around them right as the air pressure dropped. Except the force field was only around the five of them, not around Emma.

 Dan looked at Mandy desperately, only to find her barely staying conscious. “I can’t… support her life. No more energy.”

 He spun around and pressed his hands against the field. Emma lay on the ground, twitching as blood welled up from the cut. She opened her mouth and the stuff dripped from her lips, dark and deep.

 Eli hovered over her. “Too bad. I warned you. You’d die on my terms.”

 Next to Dan, Phil’s entire body was shaking. He could hear all of his teammates breathing next to him, all except Emma’s.

 She shook her head, the gesture so small he almost didn’t see it. Then the pavement melted around her and she was engulfed in tar, it rising up and covering her, hardening so that you could still see the outline of her face through it, mouth parted, frozen in time.

 Eli scowled, one eye brown, the other a flickering blue. Apparently the death wasn’t good enough for her.

 Mandy let out a squeak as the force field dropped. She fell backward, her chest rising and falling rapidly, still conscious, but almost too weak to move.

 There was a split second of stillness. They could breathe, and Dan realized that every time a force field went up, Eli let the air go back to normal since they’d be able to breathe inside the energy field anyways. She rationed her power, and then when the force field went down again, she was so filled with anger and rage that she didn’t want to just complete the task that she had set before her, she wanted to dominate it. It wasn’t good enough that they die; she wanted them to suffer. She wanted to get close and personal, right in their faces and kill them with her own hands.

 Later, when thinking about this event again, he supposed that was her character. She was so fueled by vengeance that she had to make it as painful as possible. And in some ways, it was his character too.

 But in that moment, that moment with Emma buried under pounds of tar, and Mandy downed, their plan gone, their protection gone, the game already practically lost, he did something so completely out of character that for a moment, it was almost as if he’d confused the entire world, like it stopped spinning to give him a look, like ‘seriously?’

 He grabbed Phil’s hand. And he ran.

 Behind him, Phil said something of protest but didn’t let go. They ran away from it, ignoring how incredibly stupid it was and ignoring that they were abandoning their friends. As soon as you get the chance, run.

 Dan didn’t need to be told twice.

 Behind them, a girls scream was heard, so painful it seemed to rip through them, but they only ran faster. They went faster and faster and only stopped for a quarter of a second to grab their bags from where they’d been hidden on the side of the road, and then just kept running. And running. They barreled out of the town, running faster than Dan had ever run in his entire life, and they just kept going.

 The sounds of combat, the screaming, faded. They got to the city gates and just kept going, into the woods, hands gripping so tight that there was no way they would lose each other in the dense foliage.

 They kept running until Dan’s lungs were ready to burst and he could see the slightest bits of color on the horizon. He tasted blood but didn’t dare stop.

 They ran up a tree covered hill, ignoring the burning in their legs, and at the top didn’t even try to stop themselves as their feet slid on the dead pine needles and they let go of each other, rolling down the mountaintop without any bit of control. Dan wanted to scream but didn’t dare do it. For all they knew, Eli could already be trying to hunt them down.

 Then the hill ended and Dan tumbled through a bank of mud until he came to a stop, inches from a river. Groaning, he crawled towards it desperately, pulling himself forward by the weeds growing along the bank until finally, he could just let go and the momentum took ahold of him, rolling him more gently this time into the river.

 It wasn’t very deep, less than a meter, but he sunk all the way to the bottom, the murky river floor cradling his back. He stared up at the dark water above, every muscle in his body refusing to move.

 He didn’t want to come out of the water. He was afraid that if he did, he’d hear footsteps, or worse- another scream.

**Hour 24.**


	24. But He Knew

"I’ll take the first watch," Phil had decided the previous night. Dan could only nod, and curl up with his head on Phil’s lap. Their bags were on either side of them, with most of their provisions and their tents, but neither had enough energy to move to get them. Phil rested his head against the tree behind him, his Adam’s apple bopping slightly. Dan was still wet from the river, but Phil wasn’t, and the longer Dan laid there the drier and warmer he got, Phil’s body radiating heat without even trying.

* * *

 

Dan’s chest rose and fell until eventually, his breathing was smooth, his body relaxed. He closed his eyes and saw Emma, laying engulfed in the tar, and decided to keep them open.

An hour passed. Two. "You should get some sleep," Dan advised as quietly as he could without it being a whisper.

Phil’s voice was deeper, also quiet. They had to be quiet, they had to be quiet so no one and nothing could find them. Two of the most powerful mutants still alive, trying desperately to stay hidden.

"I’m not going to be able to. Just relax Dan, it’s been a long day. You need rest."

It was a true statement, but that didn’t mean it was accurate. Dan watched the woods, unmoving. He kept his eyes open and let his mind wander.

Phil ruffled his hair gently in a soothing, petting motion. And finally, after the sun was up somewhere in the sky above the tree cover, Dan fell asleep.

He woke up the same place as before, the same position, just a little stiffer. He got to his knees, crawling towards the backpacks.

"Can I sleep now?" Phil asked, eyes bloodshot.

Dan nodded, and Phil curled in on himself, breath quickly evening out.

Dan took the rest of the morning to get their things together. He checked their supplies, repacking things more neatly. They had enough food for a day or two, and only a little clean drinking water, but they had the supplies to purify some of it.

Dan drank some of the water and prepared a fire. He had nothing to light it with, so instead he allowed himself to venture a few meters away from Phil, checking for he wasn’t sure what. His crowbar was in his hand. It almost never left his grip anymore.

He came across a small animal, like a beaver, but smaller with a thin tail. It looked at him and made a clicking, snickering sound like it was mocking him.

"What do you want?" Dan sneered. His voice cracked from disuse. The beaver-creature chattered, It’s beady eyes staring at Dan like he was funny.

Then it was dead. Dan dropped his crowbar, the end slightly stained with blood.

—————-

Phil awoke to the sound of quiet cussing and some sort of scraping noise. He blinked awake, sitting up before his eyes had focused.

A meter or two away, Dan sat by a makeshift campfire with some sort of mystery meat on a spit over it. The only problem was that there was no fire.

Dan was scraping two sticks against each other, aggressively trying to produce a spark. "Dammit," he muttered. "Just.... light... al-fucking-ready..." he continued for another few seconds before glancing up and noticing Phil for the first time. He dropped the sticks. "I can’t do this."

Phil rubbed his eyes. "It’s cool. I mean... yeah." He set a pinecone next to him on fire, tossing it into Dan’s prepared fire. It knocked down the sticks and made Dan facepalm, but the flame caught. "Now it’s hot."

Dan ignored the pun. "I got lunch. And we can purify some of the river water."

"Exciting," Phil said, without any enthusiasm. "What's the mystery meat?"

"It was in my pack. Leftovers from yesterday." Dan didn’t make eye contact with him.

Phil let it slide. "As long as it hasn’t gone bad yet." He scratched his hair, combing his fingers through it casually. "What do we do now?"

Dan still didn’t meet his gaze. "Purify the water."

"Yeah, I mean later. We need to go and find the others-"

"I don’t think that’s a good idea," Dan admitted. "We don’t know what happened. We- Phil, we ran."

It took a few moments for Phil to realize what he meant. "You mean you think they lost."

Dan shrugged, staring at the foot of the campfire. "You saw her powers. I don’t think they could have won."

"Johanna, and PJ, and Mandy-"

Dan winced. "I’m sorry."

Phil shook his head. "No. I’m not... I’m not doing this. We have to be hopeful."

"We have to be realistic," Dan corrected painfully. "And if she comes after us, we can’t be the ones leading her straight to them."

Phil started saying something, then winced hard, almost losing his balance.

"Phil?!"

"I’m fine," he insisted. "Just... my arm. There was this sharp stab of pain, I don’t know."

Dan scooted over, but as soon as he touched Phil’s skin he winced. "You’re burning up."

"I’m not that hot."

Dan looked around. After a moment, he picked up his empty water bottle and went to the stream, filling it. Then he went back to Phil and purposefully splashed the water on him.

It instantly evaporated, thick white steam hissing toward the sky. "Let me see your arm."

Dan knelt next to him and reached out to undo the bandage. Phil hissed horribly when Dan got to the last layer, and he felt something rip.

Dan widened his eyes as he watched the wound that he had just unintentionally reopened, close again, on its own. Phil winced again. "There it was again! This really strong sensation, and it hurt a lot!"

Dan looked at his arm, trying to decide it was real or not. "Phil. You just... cauterized your own wound."

"What?" Phil tried to turn his neck to see it.

"You need to cool down," Dan warned. "Why don’t you jump in the river or something. We'll get some water, then head north."

————

They walked side by side, not touching because Phil was still too hot. Dan felt a familiar sort of tug in his gut, a comfortable pull, like his soul and body had been out of alignment for a long time and then just shifted back into place.

That night, he and Phil raised their tent, climbing in together. By then Phil had cooled down enough for Dan to touch, which he did. He touched his arms. He touched his chest. He touched his face, his cheeks, his ears. He touched his shoulders. Then he touched his arms again, letting their hands and arms tangle together so they were holding each other in a strange sort of way.

"Phil?"

"Yes?"

"Do you care for me?"

He could hear Phil’s breath, he could feel it. "Yes."

"Phil, I think... I think I’m human. I think my powers are gone, for good." Dan paused. "Do you still care about me?"

The was less of a hesitation this time. "Yes."

"Okay. Okay. And Phil... I care about you too. Just... just know that."

"I do."

"Okay." Dan’s eyes flickered up to Phil’s eyes, then back down to his chest again. Phil, with his pure heart. Red, the color of fire and warmth and love, the color of the glow of the hearth, red, a healthy heart. A loving, caring, healthy heart.

Phil put his hand on Dan’s chest, listening to his heart beat. Dan could hear it, feel his heartbeat. He wondered if Phil was thinking the same thing as him, about Dan's black heart. He wondered if Phil or Jordan realized that he knew. Them, thinking it was a secret, thinking Dan wouldn’t find out. Thinking Dan wouldn’t know.

He imagined his blackened heart and smiling, biting his lip to suppress it. "You’re going to have to be strong. I have a feeling these next few days aren’t going to be easy."

Phil mumbled something, probably telling Dan to do the same, but Dan wasn’t worried. He cuddled up against Phil’s chest, breathing in deeply, and soon, falling asleep.

—————

It was the next morning, and Phil wasn’t awake yet. Neither was the sun, not fully awake yet, but getting there, making an appearance over the horizon. Just enough to give Dan the light to do what he needed to do.

Dan closed his eyes and imagined. After a few moments, he felt a droplet of cold on his nose: a snowflake. He opened his eyes, smiling as the snow slowly drifted down around him, just in the area surrounding him. He willed it to fall faster. That familiar tug in his gut tugged again, and he had to refrain from whooping in glee. Still, he willed it to fall faster, and faster, harder and angrier until it was practically sleet pounding down around him. Then he willed it to spin, hurdling in a tornado of hail and sheets of ice, practically deadly.

"You know where to go," he whispered, and all of a sudden, it disappeared into thin air.

Dan collapsed to the ground, his hands sinking slightly into the moist dirt. The cold burning in his throat felt so damn good. He wanted to shoot a flurry of ice towards a tree and engulf it, turning it to glass and then break it, but he had to restrain himself. His powers were somewhere else, taking care of something else, and he couldn’t overextend himself.

When he regained control over his breath, Dan went back over to the tent, crawling inside and into Phil’s waiting grip. "Why’d you leave?" Phil murmured in complaint, his eyes still closed, body warm with sleep.

"No reason. Let’s just go back to sleep."

Dan’s black heart fluttered as Phil kissed his forehead, cuddling closer, still completely unaware that Dan’s powers...

_...were_ _back._


	25. But...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter.

Phil tasted like sweat. There was a saltiness to his lips, and with each kiss Dan tried to decide if he liked the taste or not. Phil’s lips were always abnormally warm, like kissing a person with a fever. It was an enjoyable thing, kissing Phil. He always held on in such a soft, caring way, like Dan could move away if he wanted but Phil was still holding him the way he liked.

"You’re so cold," Phil whispered sultrily, and if it was anyone else it would have been an insult. But for Dan, it was comfort. He smiled into the kiss.

"Thank you."

They weren’t kissing because one of them was hurt, though Phil’s arm was still bandaged from the knife wound. Nor were they kissing because they were exhausted, and needed the warmth of another person: instead, they were kissing each other purely for the sake of kissing each other. Kissing someone you cared deeply about was somehow different from kissing someone because they were a warm body.

As they kissed, Dan felt a painful, warm feeling in his stomach that he knew the name of but didn’t dare say.

Then they pulled away, letting go of each other to catch their own breaths. Dan's fingers drifted up to his lips, touching them for a moment before wiping his mouth. "Keep going?"

Phil's chest was still rising and falling visibly as he nodded casually, "Yeah."

So Dan hefted his pack and they kept walking.

That’s how their days went, every day for almost a week. They cuddled, they spent their time together, they bathed, they kissed, they walked, they slept, not necessarily in that order. They’d gotten into a schedule of sleeping during the night and sleeping during the day, and based on the sun's position in the sky, they were waking up at about the same time every day. It was like clockwork.

They’d gone from a camp of over a dozen people down to just the two of them. They’d lay on the ground and stare up at the sky, and Phil would say something like "What do you think they’re doing right now?" Whenever he said something like that, Dan knew that he was talking about the ones who’d left before Eli came. Maybe the others made it. Maybe, something good happened after Emma's throat was slit and Mandy ran out of energy for force fields. Maybe all of their friends didn’t suffocate to death.

Dan tried to remember the battle, but all he could really recall was the very end. His last memory of Emma kept flashing before his eyes, the frozen outline of her features in the tar. Then the running. He grabbed Phil’s hand and they ran and ran and ran and a girl screamed and they kept running and they were the only ones who ran.

Phil intertwined his hand with Dan’s. "Come on. We should head to bed now."

When they were back in the tent, Dan rested his head on Phil’s chest. He fell asleep to the feeling of Phil gently stroking his hair.

Everything felt a little strange when he woke up, but then again everything had been feeling strange for a while. They packed up and started walking, continuing north, the way the tent was pointed. Dan felt a little woozy, a little backward, and let Phil be in charge of navigating.

They stopped for lunch and ate the last of their provisions. Dan considering bludgeoning another furry wooden creature to death, but there were none around and he wasn’t feeling too well. "Phil, I think I might be sick. My brain feels a little fuzzy, and I have this weird sense of deja vu."

"Hmm. Maybe you ate something?"

Dan looked up at the sky, where the sun was just a little before it’s peak. "That’s so weird. I thought we’d been walking for a long time, I figured it was past noon already."

"I’ll worry about the walking," Phil reassured. "You just focus on getting better."

Whenever Phil said things like that it made Dan’s heart feel warmer, actually warmer, and somehow heavier. What with his blackened heart, and the ever constant tug on his stomach from his powers being used somewhere behind them, it was no wonder Dan was disoriented.

They continued walking soon after, hand in hand, going West, away from where the remainders of their camp were located. Phil didn’t argue anymore. His grip on Dan’s hand was so comforting, the perfect temperature. "You’re getting colder, Dan. Maybe your powers aren’t coming back, but I bet your heat resistance stayed. That’d be nice; I won’t have to worry about burning you."

It was such a sweet thought, it almost made Dan feel bad about lying to him.

It was another two or three hours when a city came into sight with the same high stone walls that surrounded every city. "We should explore it," Phil suggested. "Maybe we could find some food."

As they got closer, it became apparent that the city was deserted. "We should keep going, we won’t find any food here," Dan urged.

"Doesn’t hurt to check."

Dan wanted to argue, but Phil was right. They needed food.

Phil swung their hands lightly as they walked. The city doors were unhinged and barely hanging on so they didn’t even have to break it. It was like the other city, but many houses seemed to be connected in long rectangles, like small barracks; and instead of cobblestone streets, there were dirt roads.

"I don’t think we’re going to have any luck," Dan started. "We should probably-"

"Phil! Dan!"

Dan turned around just in time to see PJ practically flying towards them. He nearly tackled Phil in a hug, laughing so hard he didn’t seem to notice the way Phil’s skin burned his. "We had no idea what happened to you!"

"PJ!" Phil squeezed him back, his voice full of genuine excitement, though he did pull away quickly, aware of his own heat.

"PJ!" Dan exclaimed, a little less excited. "What are you doing here?"

He was so distracted that he let PJ hug him too, even wrapping his own arms around him. "You feel cold," PJ commented excitedly. "Are your powers-"

"They're the same," Phil answered quickly for Dan. "Did anyone else-"

PJ's excitement immediately dropped. "Yeah, the others are here. I have good news and bad news."

"Good news?" Phil asked hopefully.

"Emma’s alive," PJ breathed out.

"What?!"

"Come on, you can see her."

PJ quickly lead them to one of the doorways in one of the long barracks. They came into the damp smelling house that was actually bigger than it appeared on the outside. "Emma, are you in here?"

There was the sound of quick pattering footsteps, then Emma appeared. She immediately broke into a wide smile when she saw them, running forwards. She looked like she’d lost a fight, with her neck wrapped in some off-white cloth bandage. Her honey-colored hair was now greasy and looked physically dirty, almost grayer with dirt.

 _You’re okay!_  She sighed quickly.

Dan and Phil exchanged a look. "We’re fine," Dan confirmed.

"What happened? How are you... alive?"

Instead of sighing anything, Emma simply held up her hand, letting black molasses seep from her palm. It poured over her skin before sinking back into it.

"The tar kept her alive," PJ translated. "Seth came looking for her after we'd left, and found her still alive under the stuff. Only barely, though. We think it might be like Mandy's force fields, where it can keep the user in a state where they can’t die, at least temporarily."

 _It's different,_  Emma added. _I couldn’t save someone else. Tar is heavy and deadly if ingested. I don’t think it would work for anyone else._

She was still signing, and they still hadn’t been told why. It turned out Phil was thinking the same thing. "Why aren’t you talking? Is your voice damaged?"

Dan blinked, an image flashing in front of his eyes of Eli's knife to Emma’s throat, how she let her crumple to the ground with her neck stained red.

Emma touched her throat gently over the bandages. "Her throats damaged," PJ agreed. "We don’t know how badly. Seth managed to give her stitches when he found her, and we’ve been keeping it bandaged, but..."

 _Still isn’t clotting right,_  Emma added.  _Dangerous._

"We were considering cauterizing it."

Phil straightened a little, looking uncomfortable. "Are you sure that’s a good idea? What if the heat damages it?"

PJ shrugged. "We’re running out of options."

"I can do it," Phil decided. Almost unconsciously, he reached out, clutching Dan’s hand. "But I’d have to be very careful. It’d be too easy to overdo it."

Dan was still looking down at their intertwined hands. They’d never shown any signs of their relationship to the others, not even hinted at it.

PJ's eyes flicked down to their hands, then he met Dan’s eyes. He quickly looked away. "You want to do it now?"

 _Yes_. Emma signed.

"Sure. I mean, I can."

"Then I’ll go get Seth, and we’ll do it."

—————-

On the day of the fight, Dan had never finished restocking their water.

They had water now. Phil used it to wash his hands. Then Seth began to unwrap the bandages.

Before he’d started, he and Emma had had a quick paced signed conversation, too fast for Dan to catch it all. Seth, who was born mute, had been signing all his life, but Emma had only learned when she’d met him. Still, she signed just as fast.

Seth unwrapped the bandage slowly with pinpoint provision. Underneath the first layer, the second was completely red. Taking it all the way off was not fun, nor was it fast. When they got down to the bare flesh, Dan could see the wound in its entirety, only held closed by large messily made stitches.

Phil worked quickly, heating his hand. When he started, Dan opted to look away.

He caught PJ's eyes. Neither said anything, and neither smiled. Dan crossed his arms.

When the wound was cauterized, it was wrapped up in fresh clothes and they left Emma with Seth to rest. As they walked out of the hut, Dan kept his voice low. "That was the good news," he recalled. "What-"

"Dan?"

He turned, and before he knew what was happening he was engulfed in a tight hug. "You’re okay," the girl breathed out. As her usual, her dark brown hair was in a bun, her bow over her back.

"Mandy," Dan sighed. He relaxed into the hug, not wanting to let go.

"You’re okay!" Phil announced excitedly.

Mandy still didn’t let go, holding on to Dan tightly. "Oh, Dan. We have so much to talk about."

Finally, she pulled away, but for once Dan wasn't sure he wanted her to. "We do."

"It’s my turn!" Phil demanded, opening his arms.

Dan quickly pushed his arms closed, "You might want to wait on the hugs, hot stuff."

Mandy leaned on one leg. "How much has PJ told you?"

"Mostly only the stuff about Emma. Seth and the others found this place okay?"

"They did."

"What happened after we left?" Phil asked, and Dan almost wanted to invert his skin and curl up in the fetal position.

Mandy breathed in carefully, preparing her words. "A few things. A lot of things. Honestly, I can’t quite remember, I wasn’t all there."

Dan flashed back to that day, so early in the morning it was still dark. They were all sleep deprived, all terrified. They didn’t know if they’d survive.

All of the action blurred together, but he remembered Emma being attacked and falling to the ground, doing her magic survival trick with the tar. Another forcefield was around them at that point. Then Mandy collapsed and the force field, the only thing saving them from death by knife and/or suffocation, fell. It left him, Phil, Mandy, Jordan, and PJ completely susceptible to Eli's cruelty. That was when he and Phil ran.

"There was a short fight," PJ narrated. "She was ready for us to die, but for a few moments, something seemed to be wrong with her powers. She couldn’t use them, and it was frustrating her. Then, right as they came back, we used our secret weapon."

The secret weapon. The one card they didn’t dare play unless absolutely needed.

Mandy sniffed, her eyes still completely dry. "Jordan."

PJ didn’t make eye contact with them. He and Jordan had been friends longer than any of them had even known each other.

"She used her powers," Mandy continued narrating once she accepted that PJ wouldn’t be finishing telling the story. "She shared memories with Eli, and Eli fell to the ground, screaming. It was... it was the most awful sound you’ve ever heard."

"I know," Dan said before giving himself permission to. "I heard it."

Mandy nodded. "I still don’t know, and I hate not knowing. But it broke Eli, temporarily at least. The problem is, Eli wasn’t the only one experiencing the memories."

She let that sink in. In order to share memories with someone else, Jordan had to remember them herself. She could go into someone’s mind and read parts of them, but once she had read certain memories, they were stuck with her. And, from what Dan had heard, they were usually not good memories. Years and years and dozens upon dozens of people’s worth of trauma, all trapped in one person. The only way to get rid of a memory was to give it to someone else.

All those memories, stored inside a girl and repressed for years and years... it was enough to make someone go mad.

"Something in Jordan broke," PJ said finally. "She wouldn’t move. And Eli had gone mad, that much was clear. It was like she couldn’t even see us anymore. So I helped Mandy up, and we left."

"We had to abandon Jordan," Mandy admitted. "Eli followed you two into the forest, but it was like she was on drugs or something. It... it wasn’t pleasant."  
  
"Seth found Jordan when he came back to look for Emma. He brought the two of them back."

Then, it was quiet.

Dan licked his lips. Jordan was... she was... there was no point explaining her. She was wise. And motherly. She opened up her wings to all of the other mutants, even if she didn’t show it in the normal way.

Finally, Phil spoke up. "What about Eli? Is she still out there?"

Mandy bit her lip, making eye contact with PJ. "She... was. Until this morning."

"What happened?"

Dan and Phil weren’t holding hands anymore, but if they were, Dan would have squeezed his hand.  _No. Don't ask that question._

"Should we show them?"

PJ looked Dan and Phil over as if judging their merits. "I guess."

Together, they walked to the gate of the city and walked right through it. They went along the wall for a while, until a figure came into view. Dan knew what it was. He knew what it was even before they approached it, even before they had a chance to look at it up close.

"Oh my God," Phil breathed out. "What-"

"We found her there this morning," Mandy explained. "Just like this."

The figure was touching the wall, leaning close to it. It was hard to tell what she was doing, whether she was trying to listen through it or perhaps climb over it. Eli's eyes were still open, and what had once been a normal smile had been reduced to a cold grin. Literally.

Eli had been trying to sneak into their fortress. And before she could get in, she had been frozen solid.

Eli had been reduced to an ice statue.

————

"You can have the room to my right," PJ decided. "I’ll make sure it has blankets and everything. Real beds."

"Wow, we'll be living like kings."

"And we're having dinner soon. You guys can take a break until then, maybe take some time to process things."

He lead them to the room he was talking about. Room, house, it was mostly the same. The families that had once lived in the city appeared to have lived most of their lives outside, only using the houses for weather shelter and sleep.

They immediately dumped their bags on one of the beds, collapsing together on the other one.

Phil grunted.

"Same," Dan mumbled.

Phil put his arm around Dan's shoulder, exhaling. "Everything kinda sucks. But at least everyone’s mostly okay, and we’re back. And we don’t have to worry about Eli anymore."

Dan hummed. "I’m so glad Emma's okay."

"Yeah. I still haven’t fully processed everything."

"Me neither." Dan slowly reached out, taking hold of Phil’s hand and gently intertwining their fingers together. "I don’t want to go out there," he admitted. "I want to stay with you."

Phil rubbed his knuckles with his thumb comfortingly. "We can stay together out there. It’s not like anyone’s leaving."

Dan rolled over, nuzzling his nose against Phil’s shoulder. There was that feeling again, that horrible warmth that Dan got whenever they were together. Now, Dan knew the name of it.

They stayed there until PJ called them for dinner, where they were reunited with all of the others. They didn't hug anyone, but it was still good. Sitting around with everyone, telling stories and making things up about their past.

"Yeah, well I can beat that. I was a doctor," Mandy lied, smiling widely.

"Oh yeah? What kind."

"Open heart surgeon. And brain surgeon. What can I say, they’d never seen any talent like mine before."

They all laughed, and it felt good, even to Dan, who only smiled. "I can top that," Phil chimed in. "I was a weatherman."

"Ooh, and that’s better how?"

"Being a weatherman is the best job there is! What about you Dan?"

Dan had been practically clinging to Phil’s side, only half there. Phil was so warm, physically... emotionally... amazingly warm. Dan never wanted to leave his side. "I don’t know," he mumbled against Phil’s shoulder. "I guess I was a baker."

It sounded nice. A sweet, pastry filled life. The others quieted down, smiling and nodding in agreement. "What types of things did you bake?"

"Mostly meringues. You know, those little sugar things with eggs?" The other nodded in agreement, some darting out their tongues to wet their lips like they could taste them.

"What about you PJ?"

They kept going around for hours, all settled around a fire as the sun went down. Dan had never been so warm and so cold at the same time.

The younger mutants went to bed earlier than the others. Soon, it was just the six of them: Seth and Emma, Dan and Phil, and PJ and Mandy. They kept talking and smiling until a familiar voice disrupted them.

"I’m sitting in the back of the class away from everyone else. They hate me. And there’s snow..."

"Jordan," PJ said, standing up quickly. "Come on, you’re supposed to be in bed."

"They found out when I woke up and my room was frozen. They were never supposed to find out..."

PJ went over to her quickly, trying to pull her towards the barracks, but she shoved him away. Her shove was weak, like a child’s, despite the fact that Jordan was never, ever weak. Until, it seemed, now. "It’s all their fault!" She accused PJ. "Humans ruined everything! They’re horrible, you don’t understand, they ruined everything!"

"I understand," PJ said soothingly. "I understand you. Come on, let’s go to bed."

Jordan turned and looked at them. Her eyes were wide in misery, and for a moment they locked on Dan. Then they switched to Mandy. "They’re all dead, she suffocated them. They’re all dead... except for her. Him. Her. He has control over her mind, he’s killing her-!"

"Jordan, Jordan. Yeah, that’s your name, remember? I need you to focus. Focus on me. Come on, come back to me."

Dan looked away. He stared into the campfire until PJ managed to get Jordan to bed and come back. "We should probably head to bed now."

None of them got up. Jordan had reminded them about the truth of their situation. "What should we do about Eli?" Dan asked, refusing to look at the others.

"We'll discuss it in the morning, maybe take a vote. We have to decide something. There’s still the opportunity to thaw her."

Dan looked up and made eye contact with Mandy. They both knew that could not happen.

"We’re not in the business of killing mutants," PJ reminded them. "We’re not like her."

They dismissed, going back to their rooms. As soon as the door closed, Dan was on Phil, kissing him harshly and pushing him back against the door. Phil responded immediately, kissing him back. "It’s going to be okay," Phil said in between kisses, both of their eyes screwed closed. "It’s going to be okay."

Dan was crying, he could feel it on his cheeks and taste it on his tongue.

"It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay."

Dan sniffled, finally pulling away and resting his forehead against Phil’s. "Yeah. Yeah. Let’s just... just sleep. I’m just tired, it’s been a long day."

"Okay. Yeah, come on." Phil didn’t notice that Dan’s backpack was gone as they climbed into bed together, still fully clothed, only bothering to take off their shoes. They wrapped around each other, and then Dan closed his eyes and waiting.

It wasn’t long before Phil’s breath evened out, his entire body relaxed. Then Dan waited, for hours and hours it seemed, before he finally got up, carefully disentangling himself.

Outside it was snowing. Just light little snowflakes, and already there was a thin layer on the ground. The moon made it glow. There was no such thing as darkness on a snowy night.

Dan lifted his face to the moon, feeling the ice on his skin. He breathed in the cold, fresh air, before turning to keep walking. He only had a light jacket on, but he didn’t mind. The cold felt good, not bothersome at all. Phil had taught him what warmth was, but this was different. This was all Dan.

His crowbar was at his side as he walked through the city. There were no sounds besides the crunching of his boots on the ice and light snoring sounds from the barracks.

He walked through the city gates easily and took the same path from earlier along the walls.

PJ had said that they couldn’t kill Eli, they couldn’t stoop to her level. What he didn’t understand was what evil looked like. Evil was someone who could kill without remorse, who took pleasure in the act. They heard the cries and saw the pain and didn’t stop. Eli had killed other mutants, mutants they’d never known about, and she’d killed her old camp mates, all of them but Mandy. She did it without remorse. She killed them without remorse. She was evil.

Dan wondered if she’d ever killed humans. If she’d ever stood outside their cities and pressed her hands to the walls and listened as they all slowly, painfully died. That was pretty evil too. Maybe even worse.

The ice statue was already in view. Dan had never tried a trick like that with his powers, directing them to go somewhere else, but he was glad he did. Eli was completely frozen in a moment in time that she would never escape from.

When Dan reached her, he gingerly reached out and touched her frozen arm. He could sense the ice going all the way through. It was all ice, /she/ was all ice. Still, there were some things he wouldn’t risk.

Dan backed up, lifted his crowbar over his shoulder. He breathed in once, then out. Then with all of his force and might and rage, he swung, and Eli shattered into a million pieces.

"Dan!"

Dan whirled around and there was Phil, running towards him. The snow around them was falling faster and some must have fallen into Dan’s chest because just like that, just for a moment, his heart forgot how to pump.

Dan turned around, letting the crowbar drop. His backpack was hidden in the forest, he knew just where.

He checked over his shoulder. Phil was coming closer, followed closely by PJ and Mandy, all sprinting. Phil must have seen the look in Dan’s eyes because he called out to him, but Dan couldn’t hear.

The camp had strict rules, rules that were put in place to protect them. No one made a big decision that would affect the others without speaking to the council or getting direct instructions from PJ or Jordan, but even that was in very specific situations. Dan knew what he was doing; he’d made his choice.

Rapidly getting closer, Phil called out to him through the snow, "Stop!"

Dan took one last look. Then he raised his hand and a wall of ice raised from the ground, thickening with every second. Then he turned to the forest, Phil’s image burned into his mind.

Phil was so, so warm, and made Dan feel things he’d never felt before, and  
now Dan knew exactly what that feeling was called.

_Love._

But love was overrated anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is going to be a sequel!   
> It will be only be posted on this ao3 account, but you should still go check out my tumblr @dansphlevels! And I highly recommend you go and subscribe to the next book, no chapters are posted as of 2/15/18, but that way you will be notified when the chapters begin to be posted!
> 
> Until then, here’s a few things to think about. This chapter had a lot of subtle things and allusions, so I want to make sure you noticed some of them. Questions for this chapter:
> 
> How did they get to the camp if Dan was purposely leading them away from it?  
> Why did Dan did what did in the end?  
> What traits have you noticed growing in Dan in the past few chapters?  
> What could happen next?
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this story! I loved writing it, and I am extremely excited about the sequel!


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